The South African music legend Lucky Dube, an icon across the continent, was shot dead late last night in an apparent botched hijacking, police said.

Captain Cheryl Engelbrecht said the incident took place at about 8.20 pm after Mr Dube, 43, dropped off his son at friend’s home in the southern Johannesburg suburb of Rosentville.

The killing, which follows a vicious murder and rape in Pretoria earlier this week, is certain to push the crisis over South Africa’s out of control crime back into the headlines and risks overshadowing Saturday’s Rugby World Cup final against England which has dominated the headlines all week.

Mr Dube was driving a blue Volkswagen Polo when he was approached by an armed gang. His son ran indoors and when he came out again found his father’s bullet-riddled body in the car.

“His son was already out of the car. When he saw what was happening, he ran to ask for help,” Captain Englebrecht.

The hijackers were still at large. The boy was too traumatised to provide police with any information, Captain Engelbrecht added.

Shocked callers jammed late night radio phone in shows to lambast the government for failing to tackle crime.

In a sign of what is certain to become a national issue, caller after caller accused government ministers and President Thabo Mbeki of abandoning the people.

Mr Dube, born in Johannesburg on August 3 1964, was named “Lucky” as he was born in poor health and doctors thought he would die. He survived and went on to become a front-line reggae artist.

He had recorded more than 20 albums in his music career, which spanned more than 20 years. His albums included Rastas Never Die, Think about the Children, Soul Taker and Trinity. His latest, released in 2006, is called Respect. He was one of the few artists known across Africa.

The build-up to this international success, though, started in 1982 with the release of Kudala Ngikuncenga, an album that was not reggae but mbaqanga, a genre that was to serve him well for four more albums until his transition to reggae in 1985.

“The change was brought about by the fact that I wanted to reach the world. With mbaqanga I would have been seen as a tourist musician,” he told the Mail & Guardian in an interview in 2001.

His was introduced to the international stage when he was invited to play at the Sunsplash Festival in Jamaica in 1991. He recalls how the spiritual home of reggae had been waiting for him and his band.

On the final evening of the festival they were called back for an encore - and for another performance the next year.

Mr Dube always had to fend off questions of whether he was Rastafarian.

“If Rastafarianism is about having dreadlocks, smoking marijuana and believing that Haile Selassie is God, then I am not Rastafarian. But if it is about political, social and personal consciousness, then, yes, I am,” he said.

Although his idol was Peter Tosh, he acknowledged the unshakeable influence of the king of reggae, Bob Marley, whom he described as “the reason we know reggae”.

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