MUSIC

UHURU YOUTH ORCHESTRA WARMS UP SELAELO SELOTA STEERS DEVELOPMENT OF TOWNSHIP TALENT

By Onkgopotse JJ Tabane

Jazz musician Selaelo Selota is set to burst onto the scene soon, with the launch of the Uhuru Youth Orchestra. The Orchestra will be launched as part of the 20 Years Of Democracy celebrations. It is set on the model of the development of talent which Selota has specialised in since he started his career by graduating with flying colours from the University of Cape Town. Youngsters from various South African Townships who have had the opportunity to learn an instrument but are now sitting at home and without a source of income will be targeted to form 20 to 40 piece Orchestra Chapters in 20 cities and towns across South Africa. Uhuru, and will also feature big legends that used music as part of the liberation struggle and new sensations that have graced our stages over the last 20 years. Under the musical direction of Selaelo Selota, assisted by musical maestro Ngoako Manamela, the orchestra promises to be the best innovation of a truly African orchestra laced with indigenous instruments relevant to the part of the country where the particular chapter of the orchestra will be launched. Selaelo reckons that launching an orchestra is not a difficult undertaking given the talent that is in South Africa – maintaining it has to be a partnership with local businesses and local government. Theatres for example are showing an interest in hosting the orchestras and being their home where they can establish themselves and endear themselves to audiences.

The Uhuru Youth Orchestra, which is a collaboration between Selaelo Selota’s Setho Heritage Project and Oresego Holdings, views its existence as a contribution to the strengthening of mentorship in the performing arts industry. The young artists who will make up the orchestra will be linked with experienced artists across South Africa to be coached on all aspects of launching their careers in the tough music industry.

“The soul of a nation can be traced through the resonance of its music and dance”

The recruitment of the main chapter to be launched in Gauteng has started in earnest and a tour is being scheduled. The orchestra will showcase its own freedom music in keeping with its name, Selaelo Selota’s music style is influenced by the traditional singing and dancing of the gold mine migrant workers amongst whom he lived, the Pedi melodies with which he grew up and the jazz he heard at Kippie’s Jazz Club where he was a cleaner. Selota studied jazz guitar at the FUBA Academy and went on to form Meropa, appearing at the Grahamstown Arts Festival Fringe in 1995. In 1996 he formed Taola which enjoyed standing ovations at the University of Cape Town Jazz Festival in Cape Town and at the Fin de Siecle Music Festival in Nantes. Live At The Shack, a joint venture with Sony Music SA, saw Selota release Lapeng Laka (2009). His latest album is The Promise, released in April this year.

“In every people’s culture and language, the song and rhyme will lead the way”

GODFREY MOLOI THE “GODFATHER OF SOWETO” LEFT HIS MARK IN MORE WAYS THAN ONE

Like another famous man in history, Godfrey Moloi had a dream… The legendary “Godfather of Soweto” wanted to bring talented young footballers together for a tournament with a difference: it was to be played on makeshift sandpits in the heart of the township, and spectators would take bets on the winners.

Today, the Godfrey Moloi Games, now more commonly known as the Goodwill Games, are a fixture on the township’s sports calendar.

A kingpin in the taxi industry and a legendary philanthropist, Moloi, who died from cancer in 1998, is still a household name in Soweto – to say nothing of townships across the country – and he is spoken of in awe.

His colourful autobiography takes readers on a rollercoaster ride through Durban’s shebeen culture in the 1940s, gang life in Orlando, Soweto, in the 1950s and, later, the birth of mbaqanga music, bootlegging and dating worldfamous songbird, Miriam Makeba. But Moloi’s final venture – the Godfrey Moloi Games – was also his most lasting legacy.

Held at Mapetla sports complex every year during the festive season, the Games draw thousands of fanatical spectators and wannabe star players from across Soweto and beyond. These young hopefuls pit their talents against each other in a gruelling, often somewhat gladiatorial spectacle, watched by professional talent scouts from across the country. Players such as Thabo ‘Tsikitsiki’ Mooki, Godfrey Sapula, Reneilwe Letsholonyane, Benedict Vilakazi, Teko Modise, Excellent Walaza and Scara Ngobese were first spotted at the Games, and the rest, as they say in the classics, is history… This tournament soccer is not for the fainthearted. Played on gravelly pitches and not overly mindful of the more nuanced aspects of the “gentleman’s game,” the competition throws up fervent, no-holds-barred clashes that keep the crowds on their feet. Man U? Who needs them?

Over the years the Soweto tournament has gained such popularity that other franchises – such as Kwa Mahlobo and the Pimville Games – have joined in the fray. According to his obituary on Remembered.co.za, Godfrey Moloi was known as the Godfather of Soweto, and was born on 30 November 1933 in Ladysmith. He was a self-made millionaire, former gangster and self-confessed thug who ruled the underworld in the days of the Dark City Sisters, the Msomi gang and the Spoilers.

Seldom seen without his trademark dark Stetson felt hat, he was known by all who knew him as a selfless person who started life as a notorious crime boss and bootlegger and went on to become a much loved community leader who often paid rent for the poor and arranged transport for the elderly so that they could collect their meagre pensions. In later life, he was outspoken against crime and played a key role in rehabilitating young criminals, sponsoring their high school and university educations. The first episode of the television series Isibaya by the acclaimed Bomb Shelter production house, features Moloi’s Soweto mansion as one of its backdrops.

The series tells the story of the battle for wealth and power between the Zungus and the Ndlovus, two rival families who live in Thukela Valley. The feud between these two powerful taxi families has been going on for generations but, whereas in the past it was about cattle, today it is about taxis. This, of course, is reflected in the title Isibaya, which means “the kraal” (where a herd of cattle and goats are kept), but is also a colloquial reference to a fleet of taxis and new wealth.