'The industry didn't do well to honour Mapaputsi': event organiser to celebrate life of kwaito legend

03 October 2024 - 14:00
subscribe Just R20 for the first month. Support independent journalism by subscribing to our digital news package.
Subscribe now
Event organiser Lefa Thumo plans annual event to honour veteran musician Mapaputsi.
Event organiser Lefa Thumo plans annual event to honour veteran musician Mapaputsi.
Image: Instagram/Mapaputsi

Event organiser Lefa Thumo plans to host annual events in honour of his late friend, kwaito legend Mapaputsi. 

Mapaputsi, real name Sandile Ngwenya, died on September 5 after being ill for more than a year.

Growing up in Zola, Soweto, as a neighbour of Mapaputsi, Lefa said he witnessed the artist's growth and understood its magnitude. He was disappointed the late star's memorial and funeral service were not a big public spectacle.

“Mapaputsi was my home boy, he deserves to be honoured,” he told TshisaLIVE. 

On September 29, Lefa and his three Aux Sundays business partners hosted an event in Mapaputsi's honour. However, the cold weather saw only a few fans come out to support the event. 

Lefa has spoken to Mapaputsi's wife Ayolla Ngwenya about making it an annual event and hopes it grows bigger. 

“Whatever we did was from our own pocket. No-one assisted us. Our venue is an open space where we built a structure, so the weather was not on our side. It was not much of a failure though. Going forward, his wife [Ayolla Ngwenya] proposed we do this thing annually to remember him, so we will be doing another one next year.”

This “is not a tactic to make money out of an artist's name”, Lefa said. 

“We hoped to take the proceeds of the event to give to the family, but things didn't go as we expected. We will be working together with the wife going forward so we'll market it the same way.”

“We are not trying to make money out of Mapaputsi. We hung out with Mapaputsi, he is our grootman who we grew up with, so we felt he needed to be celebrated. We need to honour him because I think the industry didn't do well to honour Mapaputsi, that's what we felt as a team. We are going to do it even though everything comes from our pocket, but because he was our brother, we will do it. We need to do something big and memorable in his honour.”


subscribe Just R20 for the first month. Support independent journalism by subscribing to our digital news package.
Subscribe now

Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.

Speech Bubbles

Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.