YoungstaCPT: It seems SA doesn’t care about coloured people at all

In the midst of heated protests in Westbury, Johannesburg this week and ongoing gang violence on the Cape Flats, rapper YoungstaCPT has told TshisaLIVE that it seems like the country has failed its coloured population.

According to TimesLIVE  unrest erupted in Westbury last week after a 45-year-old woman was shot and killed during a shoot out between three men. A 10-year-old girl was wounded in the incident.

Residents vowed to shut down the area to mourn her death and called on government to deploy the army to clean up the drug-ridden area.

Youngsta has always been vocal about violence in predominantly coloured areas, even including images of unrest and living conditions in affected areas in his music videos. He told TshisaLIVE that he felt it was his duty to speak for people who had been silenced by those in power.

"The Western Cape has the highest incidents of gang murders in the country. So my messages are nothing that hasn't been said before, I am just trying to deliver it in a stylised way so people can listen. But at the same time, the message is very serious. The sad thing is, you will find that both the perpetrators and victims are coloured people."

He said the scourge had "reared its ugly head again" in Westbury.

"This is a result of what happens when you try and silence the voice of angry young people. This is something that has been brewing for a long time in these communities. They have been feeling all these things inside and it has been building for all these years, now it is coming out."

Youngsta has not only put his message in his music but also visits schools and communities to talk about the problem of violence in the community.

According to Mail and Guardian one of the star's music videos was once rejected by a TV channel for being “too Cape Town".

He admits that his outspoken stance may have cost him some jobs but said he had no regrets.

"At the end of the day what am I doing this for? I don't have to make music videos in these places. I don't have to speak out. I don't have to go to schools. I don't have to do fundraising for these communities. But I do because I am an independent artist and I'm in control of my own career."

After releasing more than 20 mixtapes over the course of his career so far, Youngsta is planning to drop his debut album in a few weeks.

He said the project would shock even some of his biggest fans who knew about his work.

"It's going to do a lot and shake up a lot of sleeping minds. It is going to rattle the beehive more. It is going to be a historic album. You have seen what I have done so far and now I am telling you it is going to be bigger than that and historic."