“He gave me hope in a hopeless world,” says photographer Siphiwe Mhlambi, reflecting on the loss of his mentor, Ndumiso Mike Mzileni. The veteran photojournalist, father, husband and grandfather died aged 80 after a battle with illness on 2 June 2022.

A tall man with a gentle voice, Mzileni’s work covers more than five decades of political and cultural history of South Africa. He was important not only for his eye and historical contribution but also for being a generous educator to many. Mzileni is part of journalism’s golden era: a teacher with ethics and professionalism, who sought to further push the field during a time of resistance.

“Bra Mike” was a pan-Africanist who fought for justice. He was born in Berlin, Eastern Cape, but lived most of his life in Diepkloof, Soweto.

Mzileni started his career as a photographer in 1963 for The World newspaper. He subsequently worked for publications such as Drum magazine (where he landed many iconic covers) and the Rand Daily Mail, Sunday Times, Sunday Express and Golden City Post newspapers. He joined City Press in 1982 when the newspaper launched and remained there, working as its chief photographer, until he retired in 2000. Following this, he continued to take photos as a freelancer, running a small framing business.

During the 1976 Soweto uprising, Mzileni was working for Drum. He was on an assignment covering the resistance to Afrikaans being taught in schools when he saw students leading the march. This would be the setting of his iconic photograph of children marching towards the stadium with a placard reading “To hell with Afrikaans”.

Mzileni captured important moments in politics and sport throughout his career, winning the JPS Sports Photographer of the Year Award in 1985. This was all part of his job, but his real love – jazz – was where Mzileni spent much of his time.

He released a book with ZB Molefe in 1997 called A Common Hunger To Sing, a tribute to South Africa’s Black women of song from 1950 to 1990. All That Jazz: A Pictorial Tribute followed in 2008. Mzileni’s dedication in the book is to “the memory of legendary jazz artists, known and unknown, who gave their lives to the struggle for liberation through their talents during the harshest period in the history of South Africa”.

‘Strict as hell’

“I swear to God, I wouldn’t have known how to shoot pictures the way I do now if Mike Mzileni wasn’t around,” says Mhlambi. They met when Mhlambi joined City Press as a freelancer in 1990. Mzileni was essential in moulding the newsroom’s visual desk and mentoring younger journalists.

Mhlambi describes him as a disciplinarian who was “strict as hell”. Their relationship was difficult at first. “He was on my case 24/7.” Mhlambi had to be busy at all times, either on assignment, in the darkroom or at his desk. He was not allowed to shoot with a full roll of film until he proved himself worthy. “I was not even given colour at the time,” he says.

“As hard as he was, this man made me,” adds Mhlambi. After an assignment, Mzileni would review his images and give him feedback. He would “never waste a moment to mentor you”, Mhlambi says. If he didn’t like something, Mzileni would tell him how to improve. “Bra Mike showed me how to file negatives, caption my work, roll film, print and how to report.”

Mzileni had a hands-on approach to teaching, never suffered fools and lived by example. He was firm, but also rewarded those he taught. It was only later in life that Mhlambi realised the impact of his teaching, crediting his jazz photography to this mentorship. “He gave me the most valuable lessons … Everything from how to be a gentleman to how to approach whoever you photograph. I am the product of him,” says Mhlambi.

When Mhlambi needed to move on to other publications, Mzileni wrote him a great recommendation letter. “But my love for Mike never ended. He was the father that I never had,” says Mhlambi, who grew up an orphan. The pair remained friends until his death.

Jazz and photography

Despite his iconic work, much of Mzileni’s catalogue remains in obscurity. Recently, however, some of his work was celebrated at two exhibitions.

“A camera is more powerful than an AK47,” Mzileni said at the launch of the exhibition held at the Market Photo Workshop in Johannesburg in December 2021. It was initiated by researcher Candice Jansen, who met Mzileni while working on the Black Photo Libraries anthology that brings together testimonies of South African photographers.

Jansen describes Mzileni as fundamentally a teacher who was “invested in sharing the truth, especially with younger people … With him, I found a profound kind of openness. The kind of truth that you got from him was quite counterintuitive. It wasn’t a mainstream narrative. It wasn’t propaganda. That first-hand experience of what South Africa has become was very much at the forefront of what he deemed was the responsibility to young people, to tell them the truth,” she says.

Following the book, Mzileni expressed interest in an exhibition. Jansen got Nkululeko Khumalo, photographer Len Khumalo’s daughter, to curate it. The exhibition moved to the North-West University Botanical Garden in March.

Khumalo visited Mzileni’s home regularly while curating the exhibition. With foresight, Mzileni had already framed and kept his work in two outside rooms. Their interactions, lasting hours, were full of lessons, talking about Mzileni’s work, his love for his family and for music.

He told Khumalo how he fell in love with photography after someone lent him a camera, soon making his own darkroom. And when she mentioned jazz, “his face lit up. He started taking out his books on jazz and the articles that were written on him.”

Echoing the popular sentiment on mentorship, she says: “He was constantly educating us. You could never walk in his house without getting a lesson of some sort.”

One of a few

Photographer Rashid Lombard met Mzileni in 1987 through a fellow icon, Alf Khumalo, while on an assignment in Johannesburg. They had several encounters over the years that followed.

In 1997, Mzileni asked Lombard to introduce A Common Hunger To Sing at the Baxter Theatre in Cape Town, in his absence.

“A few years later, in 2006, Bra Mike called me again. He told me he had a photographic essay ready and all these pictures that he’d like to publish. He mentioned the other names and they were all great writers, all Black Consciousness writers.” The material was already prepared and after being edited by photographer George Hallett, All That Jazz was released in 2008.

“I was more interested in his documenting of the music scene. If you look at his work from the 1970s, it’s just amazing pictures.” Lombard attributes Mzileni’s fine eye for music to being an aspiring musician – he was part of an a cappella group called The Twilight Stars. Mzileni loved music and for him it was never just a quick assignment or gig, he hung out with the musicians. “The book is a fraction of his music pictures,” Lombard says.

“He is one of the few photographers that was there in 1976. No one thought that it was going to turn out like that. The newspapers weren’t sending photographers out. Those who were out there had an instinct. He has had an incredible history since that time,” he adds.

Lombard describes Mzileni as grateful and humble. “Every two months I would get a call from him, saying thank you for taking on an unknown person and believing in my work.” After years of bonding over publishing, archiving and heritage resources, their last conversation was about the possibility of reprinting the book.

Opening doors for others

Another photographer, Rafs Mayet, curated some of Mzileni’s work alongside Peter Magubane and Fanie Jason’s images at the Duotone gallery for the Cape Town International Jazz Festival in 2006.

They first met, however, at the end of the 1980s, through Peter McKenzie, who worked at Drum. “I would occasionally pop in when in Jozi. There was a whole crew of photographers that moved around then. Bra Mike was an important part of that crew. He was always helpful and looking out for the younger generation of photographers. Bra Mike was big of build and big of heart. He had time for everyone,” says Mayet.

“A Common Hunger To Sing was very important when it came out because there weren’t too many books around about the music and musicians back then, let alone about women from that period. Together with ZB Molefe’s words, it gave one an inkling and insight into the lives that they led back then,” he adds.

Photographer Andrew Tshabangu met Mzileni much later in his career. “He is the kind of guy that would sit quietly, but said a lot in his quietness.” Alongside playing an important role in the history of South African photography, he says that Mzileni “not only opened doors for others, but also showed them the way”.

As City Press writer Mapula Nkosi notes, he was a “spiritual father” to many in the newsroom.

For his 80th birthday on 16 January, Mzileni’s contribution to journalism was celebrated with friends and former colleagues at Niki’s Oasis Jazz Restaurant in Newtown. This was the last time many of them saw him because thereafter his health deteriorated and he was in and out of hospital.

“Mike genuinely loved people and he didn’t want to see them suffer. He would always extend his hand, even if he was not giving much. He would encourage you and say, ‘Don’t give up, you can do this,’” Mhlambi says.

“Mzileni is one of Black journalism’s ancestors on whose shoulders we stand tall today,” writes Nkosi. Through his teachings and passion to represent truth via photography, Mzileni has left us with a luminous legacy that is yet to be celebrated in the way it deserves.

**This piece was originally published in The New Frame on 10 June 2022.

Inna lillahi wa inna ilayhi rajioon.

Shukran Abdullah by Atiyyah Khan

As part of a special collaboration between JAW Family and WAX Poetics done in November 2022, this mix digs into Abdullah Ibrahim’s vast contribution to music spanning eight decades. It highlights some of his most impactful compositions and pays particular attention to his solo piano works, earliest and latest releases, Islamic influence in sound and noteworthy collaborations - reflecting throughout his career how closely he has carried the spirit of his home, Cape Town and more broadly, Africa, with him.

LISTEN TO THE MIX HERE

Tracklist

1. Salaam - Peace - Hamba Kahle - Dollar Brand (African Sketchbook, 1969)

2. Blues for Hughie - The Jazz Epistles (The Jazz Epistles Verse 1, 1960)

3. The Moon - Dollar Brand (African Piano, 1969)

4. Tintinyana - Dollar Brand (Anatomy of a South African Village, 1965)

5. Black Lightning - Dollar Brand (Black Lightning, 1976)

6. Kalahari - Dollar Brand (Underground in Africa, 1974)

7. Ornette’s Cornet - Dollar Brand (Blues for a Hip King, 1988)

8. Tsakwe/Royal Blue - Abdullah Ibrahim (Mantra Mode, 1991)

9. Tuang Guru - Abdullah Ibrahim & Ekhaya (The Balance, 2019)

10. Msunduza - Abdullah Ibrahim (Good News from Africa, 1973)

11. Sister Rosie - Dollar Brand (The Journey, 1977)

12. Cape Town District - Abdullah Ibrahim (Dreamtime, 2019)

13. Adhan and Allah-O-Akbar - Abdullah Ibrahim & Johnny Dyani (Good News from Africa, 1973)

14. Nisa - Abdullah Ibrahim (Senzo, 2008)

15. Blue Bolero - Abdullah Ibrahim (Solotude,2020)

16. Gafsa (Life Is For The Living, Death Is For Us All) - Abdullah Ibrahim (Memories, 1973)

17. Salaam (Peace) - Dollar Brand + 2 (Peace, 1971)

Feature about Sathima Bea Benjamin for News24 written by Atiyyah Khan.

READ HERE: Sathima Bea Benjamin

I wrote about Johnny Dyani’s relationship with Islam and also with Abdullah for HERRI edition #7.

Read and listen here: Feature and Mix

JOHNNY DYANI AND ISLAM by Atiyyah Khan

In a conversation with filmmaker Nadine Angel Cloete held in March 2026, Abdullah Ibrahim shared with her this story:

There was once a bird collector in France who had an African bird in his collection. One day the bird collector decides to visit Africa and tells the African bird he will go there.

The African bird asks the bird collector to please greet his relatives once he gets there.

The French bird collector indeed meets the African bird’s relative.

While the bird collector is engaging with the relatives in Africa, the African bird back in France dies.

Upon returning to France the bird collector opens the dead bird’s cage and the bird flies out !!!

Abdullah looks at me and asks “So how did that happen?”

Abdullah answers that the African bird’s relative telepathically told him to play dead.

He laughed and said he has now told me his own life story.

“In Japan, there is a concept called Ikigai – which means, what is it that you want to do when you wake up this morning. My Ikigai is what I’m doing. It’s almost like finding your destiny. That’s what the music does.”

For respected pianist and composer, Abdullah Ibrahim, sound is central to his life-long exploration of spirituality, cosmology and memory. He first experienced sound through hymns in the church that his grandmother founded in Kensington, Cape Town. Encouraged by his grandmother, Ibrahim started playing the piano when he was seven years old.

Ibrahim says:

The thing that drew me to church every Sunday was the sound. In Islam, when I first heard the Qur’an being recited, it was the sound that touched me very deeply. I didn’t know what the words were, I discovered this after…And that’s what I found in the church; through the recital of the Qur’an; in the Green Kalahari with the San people and what I find in Japan at the Shinto shrine.

Ibrahim’s philosophy of sound is a nuanced marriage of ancestral understanding that spans the Kalahari where he is currently building a project, to Japan – a country for which he has a long-standing affinity.

Japan

In April, the 85-year old artist was awarded the prestigious 2020 Spring Imperial Decoration from the Japanese government.

He received the Order of the Rising Sun – an award which recognises his contribution to the emancipation of South Africa through music and celebrates his understanding of Japanese culture and spirituality.

For the past 50 years, Ibrahim has been a dedicated student of Japanese martial arts, or budo, under his sensei grandmaster Yukio Tonegawa. He holds a black belt in karate. And he is a master-level teacher certified by Tonegawa, qualified to pass on this ancient form. Aside from performing many concerts in Japan over the decades, in 2008 he released Senzo – a solo piano suite whose title translates to “ancestor” in Japanese.

His 2014 album, Mukashi – Once Upon a Time is a quartet recording incorporating Japanese influences with stories from South Africa.

“We don’t do this to get accolades,” he explains. “When I was at high school, I was interested in alchemy and health issues. And then I was drawn to martial arts. At that time there was hardly anything really in Cape Town, so we studied our books. But I was always drawn to this concept. I have this unending appetite for knowledge. When I was in high school I went into the archives at the public library and I researched all the slaves that came to Cape Town – where they came from, what their names were.”

In 2018, Ibrahim would be approached by the Japanese Consulate in Cape Town to perform a concert marking the 100^th anniversary of the Japan-South Africa relations. “Then the Consul asked me, ‘Do you know somebody called Antony Van Japan?’, and I said, ‘Yes, I know where his grave is’.”

Dating back to 1662, Anthony Van Japan was the first recorded person to arrive from Japan in South Africa – a slave who served Zacharias Wagenaer, Jan Van Riebeeck’s successor as commander of the Cape Colony.

“I told them where he is buried, at the Tana Baru cemetery in Bo-Kaap in Cape Town. That’s also where Tuan Guru is buried. Right? So there is this ongoing relationship with Japan.”

Tuan Guru was an Indonesian prince and scholar instrumental in bringing Islam to South Africa. He was exiled as a political prisoner to Robben Island in the 18^th century, and is revered for transcribing the entire Qur’an from memory various times.

Ibrahim continues,

“And of course my studies in Japan with my teacher that is budo, is actually the same principle as the way that we play the music. There’s always anticipation, or something that is pre-emptive. Or you go into a dream state. So you play something that you’ve never played before and you don’t want to repeat anyway. At the heart of this, is something in Japan that is called S-A-T-O-Y-A-MA,” he says slowly, sounding the words out.

Satoyama Africa

Satoyama is the Japanese cosmology of conservation and biodiversity, creating a harmonious co-existence between humans and nature. Ibrahim is inspired by this Japanese philosophy for his project located on an 800-hectare farm in the Kalahari desert in the Northern Cape – under development for 25 years.

The intention is to include music, movement, medicine, meditation and Satoyama-biodiversity. The project engages the local community and neighbouring Botswana and Namibia.

“The idea is that we incorporate all of this. I call it Satoyama Africa which is this biodiversity with music, astrophysics and farm produce. For young people, the idea is to come there and engage in this. And for young musicians for example, composing in this dynamic. We have the ancient earth, and we have our sights beyond the milky way.”

In accordance with |Xam cosmology, the Milky Way was created when a little girl threw the ashes of a fire up into the sky, lighting the way for people on their way home at night. While origin stories of this nature were once common knowledge, the effects of colonisation resulted in many of these stories being untold and ultimately forgotten.

Stories like this, the need to remember them, is what pushes Ibrahim when he speaks about his plans for the farm and in the same breath refers back to his 1956 three-part composition written for Krotoa – a young Khoi woman who served as translator for 17^th century Dutch colonisers.

Ibrahim acquired this immense capacity for ancestral knowledge from his great grandfather, who was a stable boy for Paul Kruger and fluent in various South African languages.

“He taught me all about herbs. Our cosmology stretches way, way back.” He adds excitedly: “One of the projects on the farm that we are working on that South Africans should visit is what we call the Wonder Cave – a cave that has got 2.5 million years of settlement and footprints. One of the oldest settlements in the world and we don’t know about it?”

The question is rhetorical. The answer is in the work.

The project echoes what the late musician and philosopher, Zim Ngqawana, created with his farm outside Johannesburg called the Zimology Institute, a place for learning beyond music. Ibrahim emphasises that when the project launches, the farm will be accessible for all to visit. “This is for everybody. We don’t regard ourselves as musicians, more special than anybody else.”

Last year, Ibrahim was the recipient for the National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Masters fellowship. He also released his latest album in five years, The Balance through Gearbox Records. Speaking from Germany, Ibrahim comments on life under the global pandemic.

“Well, we just continue what we normally do in our lives, see?” He laughs.

“Sometimes we think that people do not have a perspective of what it is that what we do and how we go about it. What people see is the one hour when we appear on stage. But that’s not it. See? That appearance on stage is 5%, the other 95% is practice at home. Our mode of living is always, as you’ve called it, under lockdown – to perfect what it is that we are doing.”

Ibrahim has taken this moment gently in his stride.

“You know in our lifestyle and our cosmology that has been passed on for generations by our elders and mentors, we must always be prepared for change. Because everything is in flux and everything is in change, and it comes back to its source. I think our understanding of this virus is that it is just a reminder for us, that we really should observe and re-evaluate what our role is in the universe. And especially in our immediate surroundings, right?”

Drawing inspiration from the sound of the trees, the wind and the birds, he says: “Even though I’ve spent times in cities, most of my life was spent outside of cities – in the mountains or in the deserts. Like the project that I have in the Northern Cape in the Kalahari. I think for us what this current situation does, is just make us understand that nature has a natural cause of events, as we can see now. Animals are coming into the cities. Thousands of dolphins are coming to the shores.”

He laughs: “So for us it’s just to understand what is our role and to re-assess ourselves and our relationships.”

*To celebrate Africa Month, Apple Music commissioned some of Africa’s finest artists (including Abdullah Ibrahim) to curate exclusive guest playlists made up of the biggest African songs of all time. Listen to the playlists here.

This article was originally written for Arts24 by Atiyyah Khan on 10 June 2020.

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One of the year’s most profound and impactful performances is the theatre piece Bridling, which premiered at the National Arts Festival in July. The multi-disciplinary play is a challenging piece that centres around power dynamics on stage. It features an amazing team bringing together Buhle Ngaba and Shaun Oelf for the performance which was written by Nadia Davids, and directed by Jay Pather, who all previously worked together on the performance What Remains (2017). It is based on the short story by Davis that won the prestigious 2024 Caine Prize for African Writing.

The story revolves around a young actor who auditions and wins a prize role in an edgy performance led by a famed male director, known for creating disturbing work. On stage, Ngaba is supported by dancer Shaun Oelf, as the play charts the journey from audition to opening night, with dark themes on creativity, feminism, compromise and rebellion. The multi-disciplinary is told through text, movement, set and image.

Ngaba speaks about her experiences on the production. When asked what she feels it is about she says. “It’s about so many things - it’s about an actor who gets a role in a very famous directors production, but it’s about so much more like the power dynamics that play out. As an actor myself this role meant a lot to me for that reason, because this relationship is always unequal. You so badly want to get a role and then keep the role, that people can often take advantage of that. It’s about how much agency you feel like you actually have in creating something in the whole industry. It’s about the theatre, the making of it and the taking part of it.”

Despite knowing it would be a challenging role she says the process was very rewarding. “What drew me to the role was the team. I’ve worked with Nadia, Jay and Shaun previously in 2017 on What Remains and it was one of the most incredible experiences in my creative career. I remember after that I could feel how much I had grown as an artist, so the opportunity to work with that team again was a very obvious yes for me. That said, I understood how intense of a role it was, which is what drew me to it too. I love being challenged. It is hard, but I love pushing the boundaries of performance and this is the team to do that with.”

In terms of the subject matter dealing with darker and more traumatic themes, this required both mental and emotional preparation. Ngaba says, “Preparing myself physically was doing ‘morning class’ every single day. I started doing morning class as led by Andrew Buckland when I was in the Eastern Cape, with Ubom! Theatre Drama Company. That’s something I continued for myself throughout my career, whether that be yoga, a walk or a class or dance class, I really believe in keeping physically in tune in that way, so that I stay connected to my body because I understand that is what I use. As I mentioned, one of my teachers, Andrew Buckland, taught me that. Because I want to keep telling stories, I know how important that connection is.”

She continues, “Emotionally, if I’m being honest, I don’t think there is any way I could have been prepared for the role. I thought I knew but I really did. I’m so incredibly grateful to have worked with the team previously and therefore to have developed a real relationship with them because they really looked after me. Jay was very clear from the beginning of this process what it would entail. None of us knew until we were there but he had marked from the beginning that it would really be something, and so did Nadia. Shaun is physically on stage with me the entire time. He looks after me and I look after him, and this is definitely a story told through two people and I’m so grateful.”

Speaking on the relevance of Bridling in South Africa today, she says, “I think that Bridling is really important in the context of the world, truly. That’s what Nadia Davids’ writing does and that’s what Jay’s touch does. It speaks so much. It reverberates everywhere. Specificity is key and is what makes the thing really special. In the context of South Africa, I think Bridling is so important because it reveals SO much about ourselves in the pursuit of excellence and in the pursuit of greatness. It reveals so much that’s so vulnerable and so painful.”

She adds, “I think the reason bridling is so difficult to talk about is because in performing it, it truly is a ritual. And rituals are so hard to put words to but they are so deeply felt. I know that for me, sharing this story at home and the responses that we’ve received and the conversations that we’ve only just started opening up, about how we make, why we make, the way in which we engage each other. “

In his review, Keith Bain wrote, “It is a fabulous play, in fact, so delicately and powerfully directed by Jay Pather who has imbued it with rich imagery, incredible dancing and such beautiful theatricality. It lifts you up, nourishes you, and it does so without allowing the weight and depth of the traumas it reveals to bring you down.”

Ngaba is looking forward to continuing work on the production, “We’re really grateful to have made this work and I was eager to continue to tour it and I’m really hopeful that more work like this will be given an opportunity to find its feet.”

Bridling is the third collaboration between Davids and Pather. This performance is one that was funded by the Festival Enterprise Catalyse (FEC) - a platform created specifically to aid the creation and mobility of performances. “The funding from the FEC definitely helped this production by making sure that it could happen at all. Without that funding, Bridling would have never been made,” says Ngaba

The play opened at the National Arts Festival for a season and then it moved to Woordfees in October in Stellenbosch. Ngaba says, “Theatre is a very tender creature and she needs time to grow and spread her wings. I think all of us on the team would agree that Woordfees was an opportunity for us to lock in and fly even further with the production and now we’re hoping for more live performances in 2026.”

This year marks one year of the partnership between the Jobs Fund and the Festival Enterprise Catalyst (FEC), created in September 2024 between the biggest arts festivals in South Africa and the funding platform. The partnership included a shared investment of R20 million between the festivals and the Job Fund to create meaningful work, support new productions, encourage touring circuits and sustain a network of live performances around the country.

Reflecting on the past year, we spoke to Najwah Allie-Edries, head of the Jobs Fund, to ask more about how this partnership has worked. The Jobs Fund decision to work on the arts festivals was based on identifying a critical gap in the support infrastructure for South Africa’s creative industries. Allie-Edries said that the sector has significant untapped potential for job creation but has historically been overlooked by traditional funding mechanisms.

“This was uncharted territory for the Jobs Fund, which would provide the Fund with an invaluable opportunity to experiment and learn how best to support the sector. By investing in this space, we aim to catalyse employment opportunities and generate insights that will inform future interventions in non-traditional sectors. The investment decision was also influenced by the recognition that sustainable job creation requires us to think beyond conventional industries and embrace sectors where South Africans are already demonstrating entrepreneurial energy and talent.”

She describes the partnership over the past year thus far as “remarkably successful” saying that “the project has exceeded its projected targets to date, establishing FEC as one of our top-performing projects.”

However she admits this success did not come without effort and that the initial phase required intensive collaboration from both teams to align the various moving parts, from establishing robust reporting mechanisms to troubleshooting implementation challenges. “Together, we have learned that investing time and resources in the foundational phase pays significant dividends later.”

She continues, “Looking ahead, we see opportunities for at-scale impact. Specifically, we would like to see the project diversify its revenue streams by developing additional sources of commercial income, which would enhance its long-term sustainability beyond our funding cycle. There is also scope to strengthen the enterprise development component, helping creative professionals to not only find work but also build viable, growth-oriented businesses. This enables an already strong project to evolve into something even more transformative.”

The partnership began when the FEC submitted an application for funding to the Jobs Fund during its 11th funding round and participated in a competitive application process. Allie-Endries says that the collaboration was built on a foundation of genuine partnership and open dialogue.

“Rather than a top-down funding relationship, we engaged in an iterative consultative process that included both formal and informal structured engagements. This approach allowed us to co-create solutions, address challenges in real time, and ensure our funding model was responsive to the realities on the ground. The process demonstrated that effective development partnerships require flexibility, trust, and a willingness from both parties to listen and adapt. This collaborative approach has been instrumental in the project’s success.”

Speaking about the gig economy and its model for income, Allie-Endries says,

“At its best, the gig economy fosters entrepreneurship and enables workers to access multiple income streams, building resilience and flexibility into their livelihoods. It is also inherently adaptive, responding to a labour market where demand increasingly favours short-term, project-based engagements over permanent positions.”

“The primary challenge is inconsistency; gig work often lacks the stability and predictability that workers need for financial planning and security. This is where interventions like our partnership with FEC become crucial. The question is not whether the gig economy will play a role in South Africa’s employment landscape; it already does. The question is how we can support structures and systems that make gig work more sustainable, dignified, and economically viable for workers. That is the innovation space we are exploring.”

Commenting on the biggest impact of this partnership over the past year, she says, “The most significant insight from this partnership has been demonstrating that gig work, when properly supported, can be transformed from precarious, sporadic income into a more sustainable livelihood strategy. We have seen firsthand how targeted interventions can help creative professionals transition from surviving to thriving in the gig economy.

“More broadly, this partnership has reinforced our conviction that the creative sector is not a luxury or peripheral concern but a legitimate mechanism for job creation that deserves serious investment and policy attention. The impact extends beyond the individuals who have directly benefited; we are building an evidence base and a blueprint for how collaborative efforts between funders, implementers, and creative communities can stimulate employment in overlooked sectors. This learning is invaluable as we think about the future of work in South Africa and where strategic investments can yield the greatest returns in terms of dignified, sustainable job creation.”

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At a recent concert, South African jazz vocalist Tutu Puoane, now based in Belgium, recalled a fond memory to the audience of being a young girl and driving around with her mother in a Honda Ballade, listening to a cassette by the great pianist Abdullah Ibrahim, until it could not be played anymore. She then went into her own rendition of Ibrahim’s song ‘Cape Town’, reigniting the same memory and longing for the city held in the original artists’ words. Rapper Youngsta cites Ibrahim as an influence in his Afrikaaps style of hip-hop. And then there are all those hungry young record collectors in the city seeking out old Dollar Brand LP’s. His relevance amongst young people today remains as influential as ever.

Ibrahim returns to Cape Town for two solo piano concerts on Friday (13th October) and Saturday (14th October) at the Artscape Theatre. The concerts coincide with celebrating his 83rd birthday this week.

What becomes clear through our interview, is that even as the years have passed on, music still remains the central focus for Ibrahim. His voice, beaming through with much clarity and wisdom bursts with memory and storytelling.

Now based between Germany and South Africa, he maintains a very intense international touring schedule. When asked about what life has been like lately, he responds, “I can only speak in terms of my concert travel. We just played Joy of Jazz in Johannesburg with my band Ekaya, before that we were in New York and Brazil, before that in France and before that Berlin.”

Cape Town is another spot on his itinerary, but a special one all the same. The conversation moves onto the beauty of live performance, “We are improvisers, so I do not prescribe a programme. We feel the audience at that specific moment and we go with the feel of the audience and where we take this journey together. It’s a mutual undertaking, and of course there are compositions that will emerge on the journey. Even the older compositions never remain the same because everything for us is in flux, everything is in progress. And of course the most pleasant moments for us are those moments where we’ve never been before and we cannot go back to that again, you cannot repeat it.”

Sound takes precedence over the idea of ‘music’ with regard to a life-long journey into exploring spirituality and philosophy. “When we say ‘music’, it narrows the experience. We think about it as ‘sound’. When I grew up in the church in Kensington, my grandmother was the founding member of that church, the thing that drew me to church every Sunday was the ‘sound’… of the hymns. In Islam, when I first heard the Qur’an being recited, it was the sound that touched me very deeply. I didn’t know what the words were, I discovered this after. We are touched by almost intangible things, and then we try to quantify them in terms, but it’s an experience. Most of my time is spent outdoors, listening to the sound of the trees, the wind and the birds. This is where we get our inspiration from.”

He continues, “In Japan, there’s a mindset called Satoyama, which means how does one continue being in tune with nature itself. Then there is another concept called Ikigai, which means, what is it that you want to do when you wake up this morning. My Ikigai is what I’m doing. It’s almost like finding your destiny. That’s what the music does. And that’s what I found in the church; through the recital of the Qur’an; in the Green Kalahari with the San people and what I find in Japan at the Shinto shrine. It’s the sound, because the sound is real and the sound is true. So as a musician, if you play a concert and you try to fake the sound, people will pick it up immediately. It has to do with really purifying your ego.”

Despite having compositions spanning the last seventy years, Ibrahim attests to composing all the time, “I’m composing right now. Composing is a 24/7 operation. It’s not something you can turn on and off like a water-tap. It’s there all the time and you just have to be cognisant of it and grab the moment when it arrives.”

Ibrahim says he does not consider himself a jazz musician and that he found the notion quite surprising when first referred to as one, “When I started playing piano in Kensington and Maitland, we never considered ourselves jazz musicians. When Duke Ellington was asked ‘What is your opinion of jazz?’ he said, “Jazz? Now let me see. We haven’t used that word since 1947.’”

Ibrahim laughs and continues, “There is this whole misunderstanding of jazz. Because jazz never played anything. Jazz never created anything. Kippie Moeketsi created something. John Coltrane created something. Basil Coetzee created something, but jazz can’t do anything. When people say they go to a jazz concert it’s quite strange to us, because we go to a concert to listen to some specific artist.”

Ibrahim heads next to perform in Zurich and London in November.

*Don’t miss Abdullah Ibrahim at the Artscape Theatre on Friday and Saturday night. 8pm. Tickets are R300 – R375. Bookings via Computicket.

***This article was originally published for Pulse online magazine (now discontinued) on 13 October 2017.

Collaboration is at the centre of a partnership between the biggest arts festivals in South Africa. In September 2024, The Festival Enterprise Catalyst (FEC) launched as a platform for festivals to work together. The partnership is between The National Arts Festival, KKNK, NATi, Aardklop, Woordfees, Suidoosterfees and Concerts SA - major arts festivals that run throughout the year in South Africa in various locations. The partnership includes a shared investment of R20 million between the festivals and the Job Fund to create meaningful work, support new productions, encourage touring and sustain a network of live performances around the country.

This year’s National Arts Festival (NAF) featured four new works supported by the platform.

CEO of the NAF, Monica Newton explains that the festival came about through a meeting with the Tribuo Fund - hosted with artists and other cultural facilitators - in June 2023 to work out sector challenges and plans. “I was on a panel with the other festivals and there were artists in the room challenging the festivals saying, ‘You’re important to the ecosystem, but how you expect new work every time we appear on your stages, is not very helpful’.”

The festivals were indeed challenged by this statement suggesting that commissions of work don’t result in artists developing repertoire and a sustainable income. Newton explains that when commissioning work, the costs are very high; but if that work tours, especially in a single year or cycle without having to change cast members, then there is a lot less expense.

Around the same time of this conversation, there was a round of applications for the Jobs Fund - created in 2011 by the National Treasury to address unemployment in South Africa, which stands at 32.9% as of the latest poll. “The Jobs Fund is unusual in that anything that it invests in, its beneficiaries also invest,” Newton explains. It is a challenge fund with a minimum investment of R5 million from all participants. This set off a process of figuring out how festivals could work together to create a circuit of work that would commission new work which could tour between the festivals. The group decided to apply and took three weeks to submit the application, which they say was a very “onerous and complicated” process.

“The first thing was recognizing that we’re not in competition with each other; that we are factors in the same ecosystem, and that we can work together in a variety of ways,” explains Newton. The next step was to look for complementary partners who could invest.

The festivals work as aggregators of value as investment nodes, “If we work together, we have a bigger impact. Fundamentally the aim is jobs, and preferably sequential and continuous jobs as best as we can, although that may not always happen with every production, and every production may not necessarily be right to travel to every festival.”

Building inclusivity in festivals

“We try not to overlap with each other’s dates and we’re really piloting an idea here, and goodness knows, it’s a complicated project.” In its current phase the FEC is still a pilot project, with the hopes of continuing annually.

This is a hopeful moment amidst a devastating set of circumstances for the arts in South Africa. Considering each festival has had to invest money to be a part of the partnership, that does leave out many independent or smaller festivals, especially those black-owned or from low-income areas. How then does the FEC build inclusivity?

The festivals were all required to commit to a certain amount of investment and the Jobs Fund did the same. “We used a window pertaining to entrepreneurship, because we made the argument to say that at the end of the day, these jobs are short term, sometimes informal. We are the original gig economy. Before there was Uber, before there was Mr. Delivery, there was us. And that’s an environment that the Jobs Fund is interested in exploring, which is one of the reasons that they invested in this project.”

“It’s also us understanding differently how enterprises drive our sector; how enterprises create work; what is the kind of investment that they need from all of us to basically create a work and tour a work. Theatre is different from music, is different from comedy is different from dance. There’s a lot of different learning experiences here. At this point, it is a fairly narrow group, but in the future, I think it could open up. The question would just be, how then does that happen?”

The first challenge for the festival is starting something and engaging with a new funder. This required credible partners which were multidisciplinary arts festivals. “I think it is important to note that each of these festivals have gone through their own transformation. Probably KKNK and Woordfees the most obviously so. The other festivals are very understanding of the role that the National Arts Festival plays, because we can program work that almost nobody else can because obviously the basis of our funding, the intention of the festival, for many years has been precisely to be diverse and transformational.”

For the initial round those festivals that could invest were the ones included.

She continues, “Once we’ve tested the model and seen the difficulties of it, and perfected it and go - ‘Here are the lessons; here’s what works and here’s what doesn’t. This is the scale of production that we can support, or this is how touring makes sense’.”

The question returns to what happens to smaller festivals who can’t put money on the table. Newton says that this is a question they will be exploring in thinking about what else can be a point of access to the program in the future aside from money. However for now, they have to see if this model works and if it is worth it for everyone.

New beginnings

Newton says, “What we’re trying to do is emphasize that through collaboration, we can achieve so much more through co-investment. The question is where is the money spent? How do we make the best of it? And critically, how do we keep an ecosystem both functioning but also evolving?”

This ecosystem was never really ever thriving to begin with though - there were always issues of weak policies, difficulties in the economy, competition for audiences, scarce jobs - but “maybe when we get together and deal with these problems, we learn and we get better,” says Newton.

The administrative requirements of the Fund are arduous and new to the group, but Newton says, “We give them their dues. They’re always willing to meet us halfway and to learn different and new ways of working, because we also recognize that the arts funding environment is not going to get any easier and the uncertainties are not going to suddenly resolve themselves.”

What are some positive outcomes so far? Newton says it’s been interesting for the NAF team to attend these festivals and “to actually go and see how how KKNK has evolved; how Suidoosterfees takes over Artscape, how Woordfees is really taking over Stellenbosch and becoming a very, very large festival and also sharing between us the knowledge and experience that we’ve gathered over time.”

Many of these festivals have been around for several decades, so there is a lot of experience between them and room to learn from each other. “How do we share that also, then with smaller festivals, who are needing a little bit of guidance, help, information, experience, financial assistance and some really great work, and can change how their programs are perceived nationally and internationally.”

The most important focus for the FEC has been to prove to the Treasury that they are capable of administering the project and making sure they achieve its targets; imagining works that are commissioned to have life beyond their first moment and fairly quickly is what they’re aiming for. And proving to the Jobs Fund that jobs have been created and that this venture is worth the time and effort for everyone involved.

All too often we find ourselves complaining about the arts, but this is a step in the right direction to work collectively. As Newton concedes, “It might not be the solution to everything, but it is about choosing to do something different; being a bit of an antidote to the statement that everything’s just not working.”

It has been some years since seeing the Reza Khota Quartet perform in their original formation. The iconic band recently got together and delighted fans and audiences with a tour to Johannesburg and Cape Town. Some years back, we were lucky enough to see them more frequently, however a lack of venues, and the expense of touring through different cities mean many artists don’t have the capacity to perform in the same way. This tour was a reminder of appreciating those artists who still continue to push to release original music, despite the odds stacked against them.

The Quartet is lead by Khota on guitar, Shane Cooper on bass, Buddy Wells on saxophone and drummer Jonno Sweetman. I was lucky enough to catch them at Chiesa Di Pazzo Lupi in Melville, Johannesburg - a first time at the venue that definitely prioritises listening with the chill area kept separate from the stage. The band have as much chemistry on the stage as they do off, with long-time friendships between them. The set included a mix of some new and older material, but where the band shines is in their ability to really stretch the compositions much further and work with complex material.

Khota talks a little bit about how the September tour went, “The tour with RKQ was awesome! It was brilliant having Shane Cooper back in the band. He brings a certain inventiveness and rhythmic solidity to the band. He is also capable of playing some of my more challenging compositions, something that not many bass players will be willing to do. We played in Joburg (Chiesa) and in Cape Town (Chimurenga and The Commons).”

It has been roughly six years since these musicians were able to play together, but Khota kept the quartet going with other bass players in the interim. He adds about the tour, “The Cape Town shows were both really great. Good attendance, great vibe and the band played really well.”

In terms of the new material, he says “there is a strong intention to record this band again, especially after the recent tour.”

The recent tour was made possible through a Concerts SA Mobility Grant which is organised by the FEC. Khota says that this funding was really important to ensure the tour could happen.

“The FEC money is vital for the running costs of a tour. It covers the most important expenses such as travel, accommodation, and production costs. It also pays artists a fee which makes the effort worthwhile. As you know, many artists struggle financially so these initiatives are a little catalyst that brings momentum to an artist’s creative endeavours. The grant was generous and is enough for a short and cost saving budgeted tour. For any longer tours, there would need to be additional funding.”

More on Reza Khota here.

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Siki Jo-an Zuma has been steadily growing as an artist since she first wowed South African audiences when participating in the popular TV show The Voice. The Eastern Cape-born singer song-writer has been a student of music since the age of six, and later pursued her studies of music at Rhodes University. She was recently one of 40 recipients of Concerts SA Mobility Grant, which helped support artists in organising tours. Though fairly early in her career, she has performed quite extensively and spent years carving out audiences in different cities.

Speaking about what it takes to tour nationally in South Africa as a young artist, she provides an in-depth breakdown of her recent experience and says, “Overall, the tour went very well. We had positive audience responses, good attendance at most shows, and meaningful engagement with local musicians and communities. Although some cities didn’t show us enough support, we could improve on our marketing campaigns in the future. “

For the tour she focused on selecting venues and cities where she had existing relationships with venue owners and fan base as well as areas where she wanted to grow her audience. The tour saw Zuma and her band start at the UKZN Jazz Centre in in Durban; The One Room in Port Elizabeth which she described as “amazing”, followed by a concert in Cape Town at Selective Live and wrapping up at Kings Kraal in Johannesburg.

For Zuma, the funding was really important and crucial for covering core tour expenses — mainly travel costs such as artist booking fees, venue fees, transport and accommodation. “Without this support” she says, “it would have been very difficult to manage the logistical side of the tour while still paying booking fees to the musicians.”

Aside from making the tour possible to perform in multiple provinces, reaching new audiences and strengthening professional networks, Zuma says the funding also “gave us the confidence to plan a larger-scale project, knowing that part of the financial burden was eased. In essence, it turned what would have been a small local series of gigs into a cohesive and impactful national tour. We were able to focus on being creatives rather than the worries about finances.”

“We truly appreciate the continued support from Concerts SA not just financially, but also for promoting live music culture across the country. We appreciate the social media posts and news letters.”

One suggestion going forward that Zuma had is for Concerts SA to consider longer funding cycles or multi-phase support, especially for artists touring multiple provinces, as she says that would help artists to plan further ahead and create even more sustainable touring networks.

She says as a group, they haven't been able to do as many tours, due to limited funding opportunities and the high costs of funding. “We’ve done a few tours out of our pocket so far, however I believe we could do more if we could have more organisations supporting us like how Concerts SA and partners are doing. The Concerts SA grant is unique in that it directly supported live music mobility. Without that kind of backing, it’s much harder to tour widely, especially as an independent artist.”

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Rather than be mad about what I can’t do, here’s what I’ve learnt. The last 6 are the most important.

• How to use a wheelchair and move in a line (thanks rameez)

• How to use the toilet (made easier by my parents already disability-adjusted bathroom)

• How to hop on one leg with crutches (i hate it)

• How to make simple food sitting down (smoothies and salads only)

• How to brush your teeth while standing on one leg.

• How to elevate your legs so you don’t die

• How to sleep on your back with your legs up

• How to do a basic wipe down with a bowl of water and soap (years of music festivals helped. I’m not yet at shower stage)

• How to use a computer and try to write while elevating

• How to write in a book while lying down

• How to make wudhu without being able to reach your feet

• How to read salah sitting down

• How to be grateful

• How to accept defeat

• How to ask for help

• How to accept help

• How to be thankful

• How to be still… [I’m still learning how to rest]

Performance Art has been around since the 1960s globally, but it is still relatively new and evolving in South Africa, where we need to ask, what can performing arts do?

In February 2008, Infecting the City started as a public arts festival, to bring performance art into the public Space. In that same year, The Gordon Institute of Performing and Creative Arts (GIPCA) was formed, funded by a grant from the Donald Gordon foundation. Later it became known at the Institute for Creative Arts (ICA) in 2016. The ICA became home to iconic festivals like the Live Art Festival led by the brilliant mind of Jay Pather. Also worth mentioning is that in 2013 the National Arts Festival,introduced Performance Art as a category as part of the Standard Bank Young Artist Award, which was awarded to Anthea Moys.

A recent workshop focusing on Live Art/Performance Art was conducted by artists Carin Bester and Qondiswa James at the Artscape Theatre in July. The workshop invitation was put out via an open call, organised via the Suidoosterfees with the support of the Festival Enterprise Catalyst and The Jobs Fund. What was unique about the workshop is that it was open to the public - which is quite rare. A group of fourteen interested members of the public attended, made up of inexperienced and experienced creatives.

The workshop was conducted over two days. The first day was grounded in theory followed by some practical exercises, and the second day fully practical. In her opening lesson, Bester first introduced the topic and made the important distinction between Performance Art and Performing Arts. The latter being associated with traditional theatre, and the former with more Live Art performance - something which had confused some in the group.

She did an excellent job of weaving in various historic elements covering topics including: History of Performance Art; Performance Art vs Live Art, Performance Art in South Africa, Performance Art Styles and notable artists.

Though Live Art may have formed in Europe and the U.S earlier, South Africans have been delivering powerful work for many years - the works of Dean Hutton, Sethembile Msezane and Donna Kukama were highlighted as important local artists.

The fun really began when the group was prompted to work on image-making by creating an image collage of “their thing” or whatever is important to them. This was cut out of magazines, which they first presented. This progressed into finding a body stance or position or representing that image, which they presented. The final stages were adding transitions to those and then working in groups. So each step built onto the next.

“Strong performance art understands image work,” Bester said. There was a lot of enthusiasm from the group, who put their creative juices to work. Just in the first day alone, strong themes of identity, indigenous roots, Afrikaner nationalism, gender inequality, and language emerged. There were powerful and vulnerable moments, even amidst the playfulness of it all.

On the second day, there were first body warm ups done to connect to the physical body. Each member was asked to bring an object which led to a similar process of image-making. This became the building block to the next step of working with using their body, placing an emphasis on progressions and transitions, The day ended in fuller longer performances, after which certificates were handed out.

“There were quite a few nice things that came out of that. Some people didn't really know what to do with the objects. Other people really used it very creatively and beautifully. It was also a nice instance, because one of the people made a gasp sound with the movement. It was a nice opportunity to go ‘that is acting, you are acting the gasp instead of actually feeling a gasp’, Bester says this was a great teaching moment pointed out by James.

Often these types of workshops are accessible only to university or theatre students, so there was something very powerful in making it accessible to interested parties. Another important takeaway was how accessible to the public the format of live art is, in that it is often experimental, performed in public spaces, unfolds in real time and can change each time. It takes the format of anything from an installation to a ritual protest. Sometimes there is a participation from those who are watching, sometimes it is durational. This open format, takes art out of the theatre halls and academic spaces and into the world, where it belongs.

Bester who has done a significant amount of work as a performance artist herself, says, “I think it went really, really well. They were all extremely excited and happy afterwards. When we went around at the end to see what everyone felt and how everyone was feeling, there was a lot of really positive reaction and excitement. You could tell that some of the people who were there were not initially knowing what performance art was, and not necessarily going to continue using it as a style. But they did learn a lot, and they really enjoyed it. There were some people who are really excited to go into the genre and to explore the genre more, which is quite exciting.”

Bester believes there is definitely a need for more of these types of workshops. As a pair, Bester and James work very well together in this workshop format and want to explore it more. They are very engaging, understanding and easy to work with as facilitators.

“We want to extend these workshops to do something longer, so that people actually get proper time to work on group activities, but also get time to work on individual projects that can then be durational. Even just up to an hour duration, so they can also get used to that. If you have to be doing this for an hour, what does it feel like? Even if no one is looking, and in the same breath, we were thinking about how we can also grow our knowledge of teaching by chatting to other people who've been in the industry as a lecturer or a teacher or someone who does workshops.”

“These are some of the ideas that came up for both of us in the continuation of sharing knowledge around live art and really pushing for the genre to have a proper, established footprint worldwide. Years from now, people must be like, ‘if you're going to look somewhere for live art, look to South Africa’.”

Even today, it is uncommon to find many live art/performance art workshops. In a country enduring so much trauma, one way to battle and confront these experiences is the ability for anyone to be able to express themselves within this art form. And since art education for those based within township spaces is often extremely limited, this level of accessibility to learn but also have exposure to work with experienced artists, is extremely important.

One of the main sources of income for musicians is that generated from touring, however in South Africa this often incurs more costs for artists than gains. In Europe, this functions in an altogether different way for various reasons.

Some factors for touring South African artists to consider includes what the geographical landscape is like: and especially the proximity to other countries. The ease of moving around Europe, through trains and cheap flights, contrasts to that of Africa, where we experience extremely expensive and long travel journeys, (needing to go via one African country to get to another), road travel is unsafe and there areno trains between countries. The other important factor for artists touring is what the state of music venues and infrastructure is.

While in Cologne in June, I met musician and label owner Stefan Schneider in Cologne. He has most recently worked with multi-instrumentalist Garth Erasmus and also has his own label called Tal.He also has many different performing ensembles including playing solo, with a duet called So Snare, and with his band featuring Erasmus.I sat with Stefan to find out how working as an independent musician in Germany works.

Schneider started touring professional level in the mid-90s after graduating from studying fine arts photography at the prestigious Art Academy of Dusseldorf. Once he was done studying, he went into electronic music and started playing with two bands which became quite successful in a very short time in the mid-90s.

“In the mid-90s, Europe was not only like a patchwork of different countries, it was also a patchwork of different currencies. If you would travel from here to the Netherlands, and from the Netherlands to Belgium, and from Belgium to Luxembourg, and then to France, it was a time when you got all the money in cash. You had bags full of different cash currencies that you had to carry with you for the entire duration of the tour. Then you had to go to your bank and to exchange those currencies into Marks which was the currency back then in Germany.”

“And that has changed significantly. In about 2002 when the Euro arrived, I think not only as a currency, it made things so much easier for touring musicians and people traveling in Europe. It also gave you the idea that the unification of Europe is soon to come. It was not only the financial aspect of it, it had a huge political connotation.”

“And when the Berlin wall came down at the very end of the 80s, that was something that you grew up with, that partition of this communist world and the capitalist world. You could not believe that that would ever finish, because the years of the Cold War, it was such a dominant situation we had in Europe, in the whole world, and that's changed. I think the Euro was embraced by a lot of people, also on a political level, because the whole of Europe was coming together now, and unfortunately, that has changed a lot in the past couple of years - which is quite a terrible development.”

The concerts organised with Garth were mostly in Germany. He says, “Through running the label and also doing concerts for other artists of the label, I managed to establish a small circuit of venues that I can ask in those situations. Since the album by?Garth was so well received, it was not so difficult to organize those concerts for him.”

“But it is also the situation that has changed in the past two years, also because of the political situation worldwide that there's hardly any funding anymore in Germany for concert venues, I think that all the remaining money for culture goes into opera houses, theatres and museums, There's hardly any money for any type of culture that is not so commercially orientated in the first place.”

Scheinder himself as a musician has played in 62 countries worldwide, with his bands, solo projects. Booking agents had access to venues outside Germany and Europe. With one band, we pretty much played all of Europe for a couple of years.”

Within Europe, there are many countries whose governments channel money into culture.

“It means these are all wealthy countries. But you could see, there’s not the same amount of money for culture in, especially not in the east of Europe. Japan is a very good example, and that's also a very wealthy country, but there's no money for electronic music or for experimental arts. All the people in Japan I had met, they're all keen to tour in Europe because that is where they're earning the money. And the same goes for musicians from the US, because the US is such a tough system, as well as the UK, in terms of competition and it's like the winner takes it all mentality or system (?). whereas in Germany and other countries, the money does not go to the same amounts of money (?), but there's at least tiny bits of money also for young artists, for unknown artists, for very experimental arts. And they all have a chance to apply for some money, even if it's not a lot, but they're not forgotten about.

The system of funding is the same across the board, where you have to apply for cultural funding. “That’s the same in Germany, you have to apply for cultural funding. There's no institution that would give you a briefcase full of money and say, ‘do something good with it’. You have to apply and that has become much harder during the past couple of years and (than?) in previous times. Germany also has the system of federal estates. So there's different funding systems you can apply to. For instance, for Garth, we're looking forward to having concerts in Cologne and in Dusseldorf, since both cities are in the federal status of North Rhine Westphalia. And so I could apply at the Cultural Office of the Federal State for those two concerts.”

There are these programmes, which are part of the federal estates, but there's also nationwide programmes to apply at.

Another way that Europe differs from South Africa, is how far in advance musicians have to book venues, “For most venues, you could not do anything two weeks beforehand, unless it is a friend's place around the corner or somebody has canceled or something. For instance with Garth we are playing in Munich, that's a museum for fine arts-that is doing concerts from time to time. You have to approach them seven or eight months in advance. Other music venues, five or six months in advance. One year - would be something like for a theater venue or museum venue, because they also have to apply for money. If you want to do a punk rock concert in a squat, then one month might be enough.”

“We had a concert in May, in a museum in Stuttgart, and they approached us one and a half years ago, because they simply needed time to apply for the money. You can apply for that programme only once a year or twice a year, so that takes time. Then you need another five months to get the approval, audit, rejection, and so that can be quite time consuming and the more money is involved, the more time it takes to get to a certain venue.”

With the band featuring Erasmus, the difficulties are the distance to South Africa, visas and applying for funding for that tour?. “Also whenever we are bringing Garth over, we want to make sure that it's a decent venue and it's decent payment, and that needs a lot of preparation.:

The band has concerts planned for November in SA? and are planning to release a second album for late April 2026, requiring a tour in May. Since May is a month before Summer break (mid-June to end-August), when a lot of venues in Europe do outdoor concerts or festivals, it means that most music venues don’t do as many concerts as during the winter season. So work for that has to begin as soon as possible. For this project, bandmates share the workload for the tour. Peter works on writing applications and the financial side of the tour (like travel expenses, fees and accommodation) and Schneider sorts out the booking, contacts to the venues, and I booked the concerts. “This is our contribution to make it happen, and so that is our input to make it possible. If we had a booking agent. we would definitely have far more access to venues outside Germany and to festivals, but the booking agencies take a commission.”

“It is far more difficult these days to book concerts for a larger group. And with Garth Erasmus, we have like four to five members - because clubs or music venues are so short on money these days, they prefer to book solo acts or duos and a five piece group that is like that is so difficult to book concerts for such a large group.”

For the touring applications to the government, the paperwork is heavy. “I heard a lot of musicians saying, I would rather not apply, because that is so much work and so much paperwork and so much administration and the digital side of it makes it even more complicated. Because you have to have the right computer system, and you have to download some apps and create passwords - that alone is so much work before you come to what you're applying for. Really, it is, to a degree, quite annoying that some of those programmes are so damn complicated.”

Pursuing a career as a musician in South Africa has become one of the most challenging creative professions to pursue. Unless you’re belting out the latest amapiano bangers, or surviving playing corporate gigs, working as an independent musician is nearly impossible. Compared to visual arts or film, there are only a handful of artists who can claim to be full-time musicians in the country - no matter how talented you are.

The business of music has changed. Just a few years back, there were booking agents, labels, venues and concert promoters. There were growing scenes; gig guides, reviews of performances in the newspaper. But now, if an artist wants to tour in South Africa, they are spend money to work - a process that is completely counter-intuitive. This has led to a lack of inter-city touring of bands, just in South Africa alone.

This is why the Mobility Subsidies announced by Concerts SA - a live music support initiative - in July is so important. It awarded 50 artists subsidies which will enable 50 music tours immediately across South Africa and the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region between July and October 2025. This comes as the result of the Festival Enterprise Catalyst (FEC) programme, a Jobs Fund supported initiative that supports sustained work in the creative sector. The total amount granted is R45 000 per artist.

I asked four recipients a few questions including: How this fund helps them? What is needed for a tour? And why the fund is important.

Reza Khota, guitarist and composer in Cape Town

The Concerts SA mobility grant is quite evidently helpful as it has stimulated the local and SADC touring circuit. This was an integral part of what Babu envisioned back in 2008. We approached the Norwegian organisation Mmino, with a proposal centred around stimulating a local touring circuit, along with a workshop element aimed at exposing young students of music to a high level of musical practice.

Tours of this sort are simply not possible without some source of funding. Most jazz musicians cannot afford to fund this on their own. In the absence of adequate state sponsored initiatives, organisations like Concerts SA are essential and form a vital part of the music scene.

Tours firstly require a musical concept and an ensemble; then there are basically travel, accommodation, marketing, venue, sound, and logistical costs and that is where funding is so important. It also helps that the funding contributes to artist fees since door takings are usually insufficient.

This should become a model for more such initiatives. I would propose that a next critical stage in the development of the South African music scene would be to find sustainable sources of funding that can support a handful of musically centred venues. By this I mean venues that prioritise music, sound, the artists, and the experience of the audience.

Tefo Mahola, drummer and composer in Cape Town

The fund is important to help artists mobilize their music, and especially with venue costs; equipment hire; marketing; the admin of getting the band to a place; transport and accommodation. Those types of things are generally what we struggle with as artists when it comes to tours.

We have big dreams of going to play in Durban and in Joburg and Botswana for example, but it's very hard because of the funding. As a drummer, I'm almost always hiring a drum kit. Before we even go on tour, we need these few cents to be in order, or someone to have our back. When I play in Joburg, I reach out to a friend who can host me, but it gets harder when you're moving a whole band and you're trying to do that.

We have big dreams and big hopes, but money is always short. What usually happens at the end of the tour is that I am back in Cape Town having incurred a loss and not a profit. That has been the situation for some of the tours I've done, especially when starting out as an artist, not knowing people and not having the financial grounding.It generally is a struggle getting off the ground. That has been a way that these types of funds really help young and up and coming artists - they have the ideas, but it's just hard to execute.

I got this funding before…I'm hoping that this time I can do a bit more. I'm super grateful for having these types of opportunities where funding is available for new ideas and for artists to do their thing.

Sibusiso ‘Mash’ Mashiloane, pianist and composer in Durban

Travelling to places where people need and appreciate my music has often been a struggle. Usually, the door takings only cover the basic costs and this is mostly just enough to pay the musicians. But a proper tour requires so much more: transport, accommodation, sound equipment, venue hire, marketing, rehearsals, and fair artist fees. Often we have to cut corners, or leave certain things out altogether.

The Concerts SA Mobility Fund allows me to plan with intention and to reach more communities, to tour, and to present the music with care. It also gives me a chance to start saving towards recording and documenting my next album

Linda Tshabala, saxophonist and composer based in Joburg.

The Mobility fund is really a great help for me, because I wouldn't otherwise be able to cover the costs of putting a tour together, no matter how small, because I have to cover things like rehearsal fees, transport and lunch.

It also helps with subsidizing payments of the musicians, especially when it comes to the costs and fees. We can at least cover those without being stressed, because there’s a set fee. We can do the work and whatever else is received from the venue can subsidize that, plus with the money from the mobility fund, cover payments needed for the musicians.

To be able to tour in different cities or provinces helps my reach as an artist, because I can go to where my listeners are. I just came back from Durban yesterday and lo and behold, I didn't know that there were people who knew my music there or who were following my career! People were there singing along to the music. How would I have been able to reach those people when I don't have the funds?

Even if you save up, it won't be enough for you to be able to cover everything. When I travel to Durban, I have to cover my transport cost, accommodation, per diem and rehearsal cost because I can't essentially travel with my band from Jo’burg.

But at the same time, if you always travel with your band, you never get to interact with other musicians - and music and life is about that, because we are interactive beings. We need to have that human touch; that human engagement. It's nice to get to a place and get to know the musicians from around. You make new friends that you can work with in the future. It grows our community.

I really appreciate it for that, because it's not just about the money, but it's also about the relationships formed and so much more that we can't see but we get to experience.

That being said, as working musicians, who solely rely on performance for our livelihood it would help us if the fund would be added on as per inflation rates to assist us in having the money stretch as far as possible to meet the financial demands of a tour.

The desperate need for funds the industry showed when the call for applications drew over 800 expressions of interest from across the country, with submissions received from established and emerging music professionals representing a diverse array of genres and backgrounds.

Concerts SA has been running music mobility funds since 2013. From then till 2023, they facilitated over 3,800 concerts generating work opportunities for over 27,000 music professionals. The Covid19 pandemic interrupted the program which pivoted to the Digital Mobility Fund. But now that artists can freely travel again, Concerts SA restarted the programme in 2024.

James French of Concerts SA says, “Each tour selected by an independent adjudication panel is subsidised with an amount of R45 000. The recipient can distribute the funds on tour related expenses as they see fit, though Concerts SA prefers for musician's performance fees and transport costs to be prioritised. These costs vary from tour to tour.”

“We’re thrilled at the response,” said Andre Le Roux, Concerts SA Project Leader. “This is the strongest signal yet that the live music sector is roaring back to life. The eagerness to tour reflects artists’ deep desire to connect with audiences and expand their reach—and we’re honoured to support that journey.”

The venue is located right in the heart of the city, alongside the opulent Grand-Place square, a major tourist attraction in the city centre. However Toots is a humble but serious music venue, and from the first night being there, it was evident by the amount of musicians hanging around and showing up for the jam, that the venue is quickly becoming a favourite in the city. There was a palpable buzz by the excitement of having musicians hang around waiting to play at the jam, many of whom were excited to talk about their connections to artists on the South African jazz scene like Nduduzo Makhathini, Kesivan Naidoo and Linda Sikhakhane.

Founder Joachim Caffonnette is also a pianist and composer, which makes all the difference in how a venue works. We had a chat to discuss what it takes to run a venue in Brussels, considering how challenging it is in South Africa to keep music venues and specifically jazz venues afloat.

In South Africa, there are no government subsidised music venues. This has made the work of Concerts SA - a local platform - very important in helping to support venues. Research from a 2013 project called Songlines, examined the need for live music venues. As a result, Concerts SA grew from this research to help encourage live music circuits, of which many had disappeared by 2010, leaving musicians with few spaces to perform. Since 2013, they have supported over 2000 venues in the Southern African region, which allows for concerts to take place professionally but also to ensure spaces for musicians stay open.

Subsidies were created to enable artists to tour around the southern African region, he says and as a result, James French from Concerts SA says, “Music venues benefit from these subsidies by being able to access artists from other parts of the region with diminished costs in relation to the musicians' travel, accommodation and even musicians' fees. The venues can also prove a diversity in their programming, and with proper marketing can develop broader audiences for their spaces.” Most recently, A new round of funding from the Jobs Fund, via the Festival Enterprise Catalyst, has just been awarded and the beneficiaries have just begun to tour in South Africa.

Research has shown that music venues in South Africa struggle to survive, and many often close for unexpected reasons, which French says are often ‘structural’. In Europe, venues will offer experience these same issues - the difference is that there is a lot more support for artists and culture through various platforms other than the government.

Becoming Toots Jazz Club

Before working in music venues, Caffonnette had worked as a musician for years. He studied at the Conservatory and toured as a jazz musician, composer and often worked in theatre. Before Covid19 pandemic, he was touring roughly eight months of the year, and now that isn't viable due to his commitment at the venue. “I have a family history of being really involved in defending the rights of the artists. My mother is really involved in that. It’s always been important to not be just an artist, to also act for my fellow musicians and to defend the rights of musicians,” he says.

He joined the board of Les Lundis d’Hortense in 2015 - the oldest jazz musician association in Belgium active since 1972 - a non-profit association of musicians working to promote Belgian jazz, which receives financial support from the Ministry of Culture of the Wallonia-Brussels Federation.

After two years there, he was appointed president of the board, a role he carried until 2021. “In three years, I changed a lot there and tried to have a democratic way of working. They do three great activities: a summer camp; a weekly concert in a club called The Jazz Station; and lastly they support a jazz tour.” Over 10 bands are selected each year, and have a month tour in various venues in Brussels, roughly 10-18 gigs per band. “The particularity was that we will select the bands blindfold, so there are 18 musicians on the board, and we all listen blindfolded to more than 200 applicants, and then we would choose. The bands that have the most votes will get a tour. I worked a lot on that, and we also relaunched a website called Jazz in Belgium to compile what's happening in jazz in Belgium.”

“I always dreamt of having a jazz club”, Caffonette says. At the time, he had been playing at a venue called Sounds for gigs and jams. In 2021, he was approached by the new owner there to run the programming. Assembling a team, he worked to relaunch the venue which proved to be very popular, until June 2024.

After that, not one to rest, Caffonnette started looking around the city for a space. “I was already looking for a new venue, but it wasn't easy. I was lucky enough to get in touch with the University of Brussels because I knew that they had a building near the Grand Place.” He wrote to them and the process took a few months, but eventually the university allowed him to use the building as long as no renovations were done. They said he could use the space and take care of the building, as long as it was used for something towards culture - “that was the most important thing they asked”.

He then got in touch with the family of the famous Belgian jazz harmonica player, Toots Thielemans, and asked for permission for the name for the venue and “to do a proper jazz club and have something that really feels like home for musicians. I wanted to do something that's close to the people and still affordable.”

From the get go, the venue set out as a serious jazz listening space, despite its proximity to the tourist hub. It officially opened on 15 May this year. The space was quickly set-up because Caffonnette had a lot of the material from his time working in music. The piano was gifted as a loan to him by a jazz fan who said, “‘I’m going to buy it, it's going to be my piano, but you can use it at the club’, so that's how we end up with a really great piano and that makes all the difference.”

Music venues don’t get subsidies from the Belgian government by default. You first have to prove your business works over a three year period. Having someone in his team that knew their way around applying to institutions helped get different kinds of support for three years. “But after three years, when you've been running a venue or a festival and you can prove it works, you can apply for structural subsidies. We did that, and now it's been two years since we have funding from the French-speaking government. It’s not much, but without that, we couldn't do it.”

The venue hosts roughly 11 events a week - a jam session on Wednesday; gig on Thursday, two shows on Friday and a late-jam; two shows on Saturday and a late jam. Moving forward they will add a Sunday night show for young bands and solo piano on Thursday after work.

Thus far, the money at the door covers the musicians fee. “So far, we managed to do a bit of profit on the door. The bar has to pay for itself - salaries, rent and charges .The real problem that venues like this have is that every extra cost of production is not covered, so we need to pay for communication and administration. That's why I do so much by myself.”

Moving forward, another subsidy would be applied to cover jobs like communication, administration and management.” In addition he secured sponsorship contracts with brewers and other businesses, donations on the websites, gift cards and merchandise to find the extra money to manage the club, apart from paying musicians and the normal costs.

Busy nights at the venue make sure that quieter evenings are covered, so the finances balance out each month. The venue also hosts a summer residency series for bands, and they are able to use the venue to rehearse and practice new repertoire.

In his time curating line-ups at Sounds and also working as a touring musician, Caffonnette has amassed hundreds of music connections worldwide. In terms of curating line-ups he says, “The big problem is there are so few venues and so many bands that want to play in Europe. On average, I receive like 30 - 40 client requests a week.” He tries to programme a range of music from modern jazz to old Dixieland jazz, trying to have a good balance with locals and bands from abroad. Once or twice a month he has big touring artists.

“I try to have more women leaders on stage. That's a real issue, because there are so few applying. There are really not many women musicians playing in Europe. It’s changing with the younger generation. Next month I managed to have two weeks - one with a singer, another one with a female saxophone player - we're getting there. But my goal is by 2028 I want to be able to have 35 to 40% of women on stage. It's something I really care about, and I'm really trying to have more women playing in the club.Having diversity among players is also another thing I always have on my mind. I try to also have all styles of jazz coming. I also try to give young musicians a chance.” He continues, “It’s also important to have a pool of musicians that are like the house band. I can also trust them for recommendations of other artists.”

Caffonnette says the experience has been rewarding so far. “It's been a dream of mine. Of course, I'm working like crazy.I work around 80 to 90 hours a week. I have a lot on my plate. But through my experience at the Sounds before that, I learnt so much, how to be more efficient and think business wise. I managed to do a proper business plan and to convince people to invest and find the money and as a musician, it's very rewarding. Because it’s a dream come true, and people are really very pleased with the place.”

“Being a musician running a club means you can really welcome the musicians the proper way that you wanted to be welcomed when you play somewhere, and that's what I try to do. My crew get that. But for me, it's really important that everybody feels at home - the musicians, but also the audience and also the people I work with. That's what makes the place successful, because it's home for everybody. “

Caffonnette’s advocacy for the arts is inspired by his family. His mother is a famous theatre actor and author known for her work in ‘object theatre’ - a book was recently published about her life. “She's been touring the whole world and still touring a lot. She's 73 now. I grew up with theater. I was touring with her when I was a kid. Sometimes she would play 200 shows a year. I remember when I was a kid we did a three month tour in Canada, taking a plane every two days...But my mother also was really involved in defending the rights of actors.She worked to bring theater to schools and bring schools to theaters. I grew up in that environment of active artists.” His father is an artist and brother a ballet dancer, so becoming a musician was a natural course for him.

“I always wanted to be a musician, and always knew that at some point I'm also a leader. I want to act for the community. It's important… I had to do something that was really down to earth. And doing this really makes a difference. I can feel the difference that I'm making, that's why I'm doing it, and that's why I love this so much. Because I really can say that I'm really helping the community, and I can see it every night, that it actually works.”

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For over a decade, Concerts SA, a live music initiative, played a pivotal role in helping musicians in South Africa organise gigs and tours. Concerts SA began out of wanting to foster a healthier and more supported ecosystem and has since evolved into a platform that aims at sustainably supporting artists. As of September 2024, Concerts SA is one of the partners in the Festival Enterprise Catalyst (FEC), as a collaborative partner joining other major arts South African festivals. The FEC is a match fund meaning all the festivals invested R10 million which was matched by the R10 million from the Jobs Fund, in order to fund art projects.

Concerts SA started in 2012 and received significant funding from the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and other smaller organisations like the Southern African Music Rights Organisation (SAMRO). Current head of Concerts SA, Andre Le Roux explains,“There were two years of negotiation before Concert SA hit the ground, and then we ran a six month pilot. It was about live performance, touring circuits, supporting venues, supporting promoters, and the first decade was, how do we support artists to tour, not only in South Africa, but in the SADC region? How do we stabilize venues? How do we support and incentivize promoters? What can we do that's catalytic? And how do we build this? So from theory, we developed models and grew what a lot of people thought worked.”

The project ran for 9 years, supporting over 9000 artists in over 2000 venues. Since 2020, Le Roux has been running it with an independent project management and research team. In July of 2020, despite being in the height of the Covid19 pandemic, the team developed Digital Futures - setting in motion a project centred on developing digital mobility- which resulted in supporting 354 projects during and since the pandemic, with the aid of funding from SAMRO and the Norwegian funders.

In 2022, the Concerts SA reached a halt due to the Norwegian funding coming to an end. But Le Roux’s good business skills meant he was able to find support to keep the initiative afloat. After he began to negotiate an engagement with the FEC, as a way to take the Digital Mobility Fund to physical mobility. “I also knew the festivals framework, because I'd been on the board of the KKNK for seven years and I was on the board of the Market theater for the past 7 years, so most people see me as a music person, but actually theatre was my first love”. The FEC required all partners to invest in order to build a fund that could support more artists, funding which Le Roux procured from the Swiss Arts donors through Pro Helvetia and SAMRO.

Concerts SA is the biggest singular partner investor of the FEC, besides the Jobs Fund matching contribution. Their intention with their involvement was to create space for a mobility fund that was physical, where artists could apply for R45,000 and tour either in the SADC region or in South Africa. As a result, over the last four months since February 2025, they supported 217 live concerts, 127 venues, in 7 provinces and 5 SADC regions. A small team works for Concerts SA and Le Roux describes the project as intense due to managing 61 projects during this time, as well as negotiating real-life situations like the Mozambican riots.

“With the Concerts SA, we were able to bring to the table the regularity of performance in venues. Now that's not a festival, but we created work. So that was just in the last couple of months, the number of gigs increased. What we do is not funding, not sponsorship, but is a subsidy that needs to be catalytic. By catalytic, we say it's a subsidy, and then some artists realize they can do more. For example, pianist Adam Glasser, did gigs and about four workshops.”

The result of the FEC partnership thus far has been the ability to support multiple musicians - especially musicians who may play in various bands. “That four month injection allowed there to be some continuity in the ecosystem, more than six gigs at Chiesa (Melville), a number of gigs at the Commons and two gigs at Youngblood (Cape Town), gigs in Swaziland,more than eight gigs in Tanzania and also the Sauti za Busara Festival. So the catalytic investment meant that we were able to grow.”

What does this look like for job creation? Le Roux, who previously worked in government says “Our sector is not based on jobs.The term the gig economy comes from our sector, which actually doesn't mean jobs. It means work.” He adds, “For example, Sipho Mabuse doesn't have a job, but he's got this little number called Burnout, - a piece of work that generates income. That income means revenue which means wealth creation. That same work gets performed internationally and generates income. So in my paradigm, we reported on temporary jobs. But in my view, it's about work and works.”

This work can look like an artist performing, session musicians, sound engineers, venue owners, booking agents, road managers, publicists, bar and waiting staff, “The direct jobs are the jobs that we created in terms of temporary work for artists themselves, that's the priority. But that carries an ecosystem that generates more work, more revenue spent, and that work can grow in future. As Concerts SA, that's how we look at the jobs paradigm.”

“When you talk about the gigs and the concerts, the ability of those works to tour generates something much more important; it generates consumption. Quite often in the arts, you apply to the NAC for money to stage something. The focus is on production. Even at festivals, the focus is on how good the production is. I turn around in a gig or a show, and I look at the audience, because if there's consumption. Even when Concerts SA is gone, hopefully there'll be more people visiting a venue.”

The importance is not only the touring of productions, but being catalytic with igniting new audiences to experience different music. This includes monitoring what draws audiences to a gig, or want to return to a venue or attend a festival. Le Roux says these are ideas Concerts SA is interested in exploring with the FEC partners. “I think that in some of the areas of collaborative thinking and work that the FEC would do, the main thing we have under the FEC term is not the ‘festival’ but ‘enterprise’ and ‘catalyst’. Every venue, every promoter, every artist, if they're going to be in this business, they have to be an enterprise. Our funding is catalytic.”

These collaborations are important for bringing different levels of good productions that can tour in either circuit. “You suddenly have a very powerful network of collaborators, not only to produce work, but to cultivate consumption and new audiences.”

In this regard, Concerts SA encouraged artists to start applying to these festivals. An example is having artist Lefa Mosea perform at the Mandela Bay Arts Festival - a smaller festival run by the National Arts Festival. It was supported by Concerts SA which is why he could tour to Johannesburg. So this is how an ecosystem between festivals can work. “Then synergy doesn't become a theoretical word, it becomes a real word. The other challenge, we realized, is to encourage audiences, you need to tell them what is going on? It's about cultivating tastes, growing audiences, and that's that aspect of the FEC that's going to be very important for collaboration.”

Having the ability to invest, buys you a seat at the table of the FEC - as it currently stands. However there are instances like the production, Laatie Mettie Biscuits, produced by FEC money that ended up at The Market Theatre (a non-FEC partner), because it was polished and they contributed to the ecosystem of producing the work.

The big difference between Concerts SA and the rest of the festivals that form part of the FEC, is that the festivals solicit the work that they want and curate that work for their festival platform. On the other hand Concerts SA puts out an open call for applications, which receives hundreds of applicants, finally chosen by a board of adjudicators.

“It'll never be fair to go to a gig and to say to an artist, ‘you must apply’, because then they think that they're soliciting from me, or me soliciting them, and I make the decision, and I never make the decision. The decisions are made by the independent panel of adjudicators and an independent chair. There are times when we only have 50 grants and we have 400 applications. When we announce them, I make 50 friends and 350 enemies because the adjudicators don't want their names known. And I take it on the chin, because those adjudicators are professionals.”

“The dream for me, for the FEC partners and Concerts SA, is to be able to lobby the South African economy through the Treasury to invest in the creative industries and the arts and music in particular, directly to create work and shift that paradigm. And if we do that, we will prove that the arts, culture, music, can actually generate income in this economy….If we build a pilot model, we generate more of an ability to tour, more of an ability for revenue, more of an ability for consumption, and more people will be able to sustain their careers in this sector.”

He iterates, “What do we want as Concerts SA? Within the FEC, to be the trusted partner, to lobby Treasury for direct support, and to be the trusted intermediary to do so, because I think we've proven that track record already.

Rashid Lombard was a legend among legends. A comrade, a stalwart, a hip jazz cat — he lived large, energetically, wildly seizing life by the horns, as if there was an urgency to do so.

Lombard was a photojournalist working for the foreign press, capturing the darkest days of apartheid South Africa, but also a major contributor to culture whose name was synonymous with jazz in South Africa. He died on 4 June, at the age of 74.

Tributes from all over the world poured from different aspects of his life — as a mentor, activist, photographer and organiser. All attest to his brilliant storytelling, because his life was so interesting and often unbelievable. His most striking characteristics were his charm, humour and how he was always working and able to accomplish a lot in a short time, making it impossible to capture all he did.

He said about his youth, “I liked money and I liked shoes. At high school, during holiday time, I’d be working in the shops in Athlone. I always had a job. I’d always find something to do.”

Lombard was born in Port Elizabeth in 1951 and his family moved to Cape Town when he was 11 years old in 1962. His love for photography grew through art classes while attending Wittebome High in Wynberg and through an uncle interested in the art form.

Apartheid prevented him from studying photography, but because he loved drawing, he got into architectural drafting. He landed a job at the construction giant Murray & Roberts, as an industrial photographer of architecture, shooting buildings around Cape Town. He soon got hooked on photography and started photographing political rallies.

When we met for an interview at his home in Athlone, Cape Town in 2022, Lombard was joined by his daughter Yana, and the pair spoke as one unit, finishing each other’s sentences. They were thick as thieves and partners in crime. To date, I have not witnessed a father-daughter duo so close and the interview was done jointly.

Yana knew the context of each image spoken about and Lombard had had an incredible memory for detail, with the ability to rattle off names and dates that is rare. They spoke about his life highlights — his extensive photographic archive, iconic gigs, Nelson Mandela’s release, the country’s first elections, photographing rallies in the height of apartheid, meeting musicians from all over the world. Their stories were endless.

Upon entering his home, iconic, historic images lined the walls, alongside books and records. Excitedly, Lombard guided me to a backroom filled with archives, posters and history, and then another room, showing me a reel of negatives. “The thing about learning from a photographer’s perspective, is you get to see how they think,” he said.

His negatives showed what his days would be like back in the height of apartheid repression. During the day, it was shooting at rallies and, at nights, in the smoky jazz clubs. “That’s why, in my contact sheets, you can see a funeral, then a party, then a gig. All the time I was photographing. I was at every gig,” Lombard said.

“The music was also linked to the political struggle. They were all involved. Not one musician ever said, ‘No I can’t play at this.’ So you’d be at a funeral that afternoon and at night it would be a goomba [party]. We would be at a rally during the day, and then the jazz club at night.”

And it is this statement that encapsulates how South Africa’s struggle for freedom is intertwined with a legacy of jazz and politically charged figures. As a photojournalist during the Eighties, he founded the Cape Town Press Centre in the city centre with renowned photojournalist John Rubython, and documented for BBC, NBC, AFP and local publications like Grassroots and South.

It was a facility where foreign media could come and work and they’d organised runners to guarantee safe passage into the townships. “Everything was undercover. We ran that facility until Mandela was released in 1991.”

The centre was across an important jazz and hip-hop venue and club called Jazz Den/The Base where activists would hang out.

His peers were from the golden age of photojournalists, some have passed on: Peter Magubane, George Hallett, Omar Badsha, Rafs Mayet, Oscar Gutierrez and Gregory Franz.

Lombard was married to the anti-apartheid activist Colleen Rayson, and though she has been ill for many years, she would often accompany him to jazz concerts in Cape Town.

The couple met when she was 16 and the journalist Zubeida Jaffer describes them as “a couple who were tied at the hip”. Lombard’s three children — Yana, Chevan and Shadley — grew up with a great sense of photography and Shadley is also a photographer.

Tributes for Lombard poured in from musicians, and from political figures, including President Cyril Ramaphosa, the Democratic Alliance and The Good Party. In 2014, he was awarded the National Order of Ikhamanga in Silver in 2014 for his role working in jazz internationally.

He gave us stages

Lombard loved music and, for as long as he was able to, he would attend gigs all over Cape Town. During his lifetime, he must have witnessed thousands of musicians playing. One of his greatest achievements is co-founding the largest jazz event in South Africa, now called The Cape Town International Jazz Festival. Originally called The North Sea Jazz Festival, he was director from 2000 to 2014, and Yana worked with him booking artists. He also co-founded EspAfrika in 1998, the company which runs the festival.

Prior to that he started a jazz club called Rosies at the V&A Waterfront, with Rubython and Jimi Matthews. Later, Rosies would become the name of a stage at the jazz festival. He also worked in radio at Fine Music Radio and P4.

On his tour to South Africa in May, drummer Kesivan Naidoo dedicated his performance at the Baxter Theatre to Lombard, based on their long friendship.

He shared this tribute: “Today, we lost a giant. Rashid Lombard was more than a cultural icon, more than a mentor, more than a visionary. He was a father figure to an entire generation of South African musicians. A fierce believer in the transformative power of jazz. A documentarian of our stories. A builder of dreams. He gave us stages when there were none. He opened doors where only walls existed …

“Thank you for believing in me. Thank you for believing in all of us. May your journey onward be filled with light — and may we honour your life by continuing to make music, take up space, and tell our stories, boldly.”

The Lessons he left behind

Lombard’s skill was that of a brilliant connector; extremely driven and ambitious. In his presence, one felt that anything was possible and that there was a solution to every problem. He was deeply passionate about art, activism, education and photography and throughout his life opened doors for many and we owe so much to him for doing so.

He nurtured musicians, but more importantly, an entire arts community. He was passionate about education and he used the jazz festival as a medium for that to happen.

If it were not for Lombard, I would not be an arts journalist today. For many years, he ran two education programmes at his festival, one for arts journalism, taught by Gwen Ansell, and one for photography taught by many of his comrades, such as the late Peter McKenzie.

This course was essential to my education as a journalist and set the trajectory for the rest of my life. For a week, culminating in the festival, students would learn how to document jazz. I attended the arts journalism course in 2009. It was so good, I attended again in 2012, and later did the Arts Journalism Mentorship course taught by Fiona Lloyd.

About teaching this course Ansell says: “Rashid was the reason the arts journalism course worked. He saw the strength of the idea immediately, and pulled out all the stops to make it work, including finding a budget for scholarships to draw in students from across Africa — and seeing visa issues for them were sorted out so they could negotiate sometimes difficult SA immigration procedures.

“And the first thing he agreed, right at the start of the very first programme, was that the festival would be totally hands-off on what students wrote, even if it was critical of the event. Not everybody else in festival admin agreed with him, but he defended that principle fiercely.

“That tells you about his politics — he not only understood, but lived, the role of the media as an agent of democracy and change. It really shows the decline of such political awareness since.”

Lombard also realised the importance of documentation and annually released a publication with images of jazz photography, these included; Jazz Rocks: Six decades of music in South Africa; All That Jazz — a pictorial tribute; 10th Anniversary of the Cape Town International Jazz Festival and Jazz, Blues, Swing: Six decades of music in South Africa.

An archive for all of us

Lombard’s interest in archiving started in 1986, after being awarded a study and travel grant to work at the prestigious Magnum Photos in New York. From 1987, he was the chief photographer for South Press, the first alternative, anti-apartheid weekly newspaper in Cape Town.

Rayson worked with him, and started to help organise his archive but, soon after, she was detained by the apartheid authorities for five months. After she was released in 1988, she continued to organise the archive.

Our interview was about his passion and vision for a centre for photographers in South Africa — something that was desperately needed and an idea which Lombard worked on over the last decade of his life.

After leaving the jazz festival, digitising his archive became the top priority. He later partnered with the National Archives and the Department of Sport, Arts and Culture to make the collection publicly accessible online as a national heritage resource. His daughter Yana will carry on the mission to ensure this work continues.

Speaking about the memory required, and the need for photographers to have a personal hand in putting an archive together, Lombard said, “You saw when I opened the file in the cupboard?

“I said, ‘Oh there’s Peter Magubane!’ It does come back … I mean it’s an important question. It’s why it’s so important to do this now with me, before I pass on. Let’s face it, you’re going to pass on at some time. So the urgency is now!”

Realising the lack of opportunities and support for photographers, Lombard’s dream was to create a space to teach younger students and have a mentorship programme with older photographers. He wanted to preserve, digitise and move the entire archive into a building, which would also house a darkroom and other amenities affordable to photographers.

His archive consists of 500 000 film negatives, alongside video, audio and posters, collected over 50 years.

“The idea was, instead of leaving all my archives to my kids — because it belongs to them, it’s in the family trust — isn’t it irresponsible for us to give them the task? They might want to do other things in life. But somebody has to look after it.

“And if a university is the custodian … for the next 100 years, maybe the university is still there, so that is a spot to leave it at. It’s linked to the family and linked to me, but it’s going to be around and will be accessible.”

For his dream, he said he wanted the best of everything: “I don’t touch anything if it’s not state-of-the-art,” with the intention of setting up darkrooms and assuring, “I will find the money for it.”

“We are writing a new curriculum, We are getting young people in to train them, we are setting up a darkroom, we’re going to clean negatives. But we have complete control over it. We are going to set up a new centre. Get young people in to start looking at pictures, and work with older photographers.

“Get unemployed activists to look at the work and write about it. They might just look at the contact sheet and then take it further to younger people … How do you distribute that information by phone? So it’s not just a place to study archives, it’s a photographic centre.”

Lombard had taken part in numerous exhibitions since the Seventies and photographed some of the most important people in South Africa’s history. In 1994, he was the personal photographer to Nelson Mandela during the election campaign.

He made it a personal mission to seek out the great photographer Ernest Cole, and was one of the last to photograph him in 1986. Their touching meeting formed part of the 2024 documentary Ernest Cole: Lost and Found by Raoul Peck. Cole, who had not held the camera for a decade, borrowed Lombard’s and photographed him.

Lombard’s presence and demeanor suggested that he was part of a different era. He lived through all the smoke, from the grit of smoky newsrooms, to running away from explosions and teargas, to the smoke of cigarettes blowing away at late-night jazz gigs. Through it all, his lens lifted the veil for the truth, of which we are so thankful for. We remember him for all that he taught us.

Tags: African visual history, anti-apartheid media, article, Arts Education, Arts Journalism, Cape Town International Jazz Festival, cultural archive, Ernest Cole, Espafrika, Fine Music Radio, jazz festival history, jazz photography, Magnum Photos, music and activism, photography archive, photojournalism, Rashid Lombard, South African Jazz, South African legacy

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