The former Rhythm City actor died in a Johannesburg hospital last week after suffering from pulmonary hypertension, which caused his heart to fail.

Speaking to TshisaLIVE on Wednesday, Mbali explained that the family was encouraged to send a message to some of Sipho’s former colleagues, to ask them for help.

“My dad passed away on Tuesday night after he suffered a heart failure and on Wednesday we formulated a message to be sent to a production that dad worked at, where we asked for donations to help with burying him. This we did as advised by the producer of the show.”

She said the message was never meant to be circulated beyond those involved in the production, but soon went viral.

“One of dad’s colleagues posted the same message on Facebook and some artists started a group … they started it with the sole purpose of raising funds.”

Though her father’s colleagues meant well, they were soon accused of “running a scam”.

“There were rumours that this whole thing was a scam and their names were being dragged in the whole mess. I just wanted to provide clarity that this was not a scam … after the message went viral, we have received a lot of people calling and coming to our family home to assist where they can.”

Enough funds were raised and everything came together in the end for the family. Mbali said she was grateful to all those who helped.

“Today my dad is being buried and everything has come together, I am entirely grateful to everyone that extended their hand, everyone that visited my family home, and everyone that assisted in whichever way they could so that this day could be possible. I’m grateful.

“I just want to extend my gratitude also to the admins of the WhatsApp group as their efforts don’t go unnoticed.”