The son of the legendary Tsonga disco pioneer Giyani “Penny Penny” Kulani has reportedly committed suicide after apparently telling his mother about his suicidal thoughts several times.

The 23-year-old Nicholas reportedly disappeared after telling his grandfather that he was coming back before committing suicide on Thursday afternoon at Soshanguve train station, north of Pretoria.

The son of the legendary star made a short appearance on his father’s reality show Papa Penny Ahee. He lived with his grandparents in Soshanguve.

According to Celeb Gossip, Penny Penny said the family is still shocked and haven’t come to terms with the son’s death.

“He woke up in the morning and he was very good. So around 3pm after taking a bath he just told the grandfather that he’s coming back [after going out]. At around 10pm, we received a call that he had not returned home. We tried calling him but his phone went onto voicemail. We tried calling his friends and they didn’t know where he was. That’s when we started to suspect something was wrong,” Penny said.

“Around 11pm, the grandfather was looking through his room and found a letter with the message that ‘I’m going to kill myself at Soshanguve train station’. That’s when the grandparents called the police and they were told that it [suicide] happened around 4pm. I drove there [from Limpopo] the same night. We went to check and found that it was indeed him. Apparently, people tried to stop him.”

He said the family didn’t think that Nicholas would do what he did.

“I don’t know what his problem was. He used to tell his mother sometimes that ‘I’m going to kill myself’. During the day on Thursday, he sent his mother a picture with the peace sign. The mother didn’t think much of it,” Penny added.

Nicholas’ funeral will be in Soshanguve on Saturday.

Police spokesperson Cpt Stephen Maluleka said they did not have “an inquest case opened of that nature at Rietgat police station for the past week”.