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Music icon Sipho ‘Hotstix’ Mabuse wants Gayton McKenzie to ditch the ‘skop en donder’ attitude and help artists

Music icon Sipho ‘Hotstix’ Mabuse wants Gayton McKenzie to ditch the ‘skop en donder’ attitude and help artists
Sipho Hotstix Mabuse at 70th Dinner Party honouring Sipho Hotstix Mabuse on November 02, 2021 in Johannesburg, South Africa. Sipho Hotstick Mabuse is a renowned South African musician. (Photo by Gallo Images/Oupa Bopape)
Jo-Mangaliso Mdhlela
By Jo-Mangaliso Mdhlela
21 Jul 2024
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"It would be much better if our arts minister is less brazen in his approach to issues and respected others. We live in a democratic culture, and this must not be compromised in any way. The skop en donder melodramatic approach tends to create tensions, and we must avoid this," says legendary musician Sipho ‘Hotstix’ Mabuse, who has some advice – and criticism – for new Minister of Sports, Arts and Culture Gayton McKenzie.

The performing arts do not need handouts from the government – they need strong support which includes adequate budgets to build sustainable infrastructure to enable members of the entertainment industry to thrive and build successful careers.

This is according to Sipho “Hotstix” Mabuse, in an interview with Daily Maverick, as his group – which he refers to as Sipho Hotstix Mabuse Friends (SHMF) – prepares to ask for a meeting with newly appointed Minister of Sports, Arts and Culture Gayton McKenzie, to ask what he plans to do to alleviate “the suffering of black artists” who don’t have the proper facilities to ply their trade.

This would ideally include building musical centres, theatres and academies across the country to urge young people to see the performing arts as viable job options, as well as revamping South Africa’s many dilapidated community centres, such as Uncle Tom’s Hall in Orlando West, Soweto.

Mabuse (72) said artists are demanding this urgent meeting to put forward their proposals for what needs to be done to empower black performing artists.

He argues that performing artists under the umbrella of loosely organised organisations such as SHMF and formal groupings such as the South African Music Performance Rights Association must become an integral part of all sectors in the industry agitating for “a meaningful change and the betterment of conditions for all artists in the country”.

“We must collaborate so that we plan together and look at budget allocations together for the inclusive planning of our industry,” he said. “So, it is important that in every nook and cranny, facilities and learning academies must be established to produce more competent artists for the industry.

“What kind of absurdity is to imagine that the department of arts could all by itself determine our fate without our intervention? The past 30 years of democracy for artists has been a disaster. We are sick and tired of promises that do not materialise.

“Every minister during the past 30 years has been making empty promises, and delivery has been sparse. This must change.” 

Sipho "Hotstix" Mabuse Sipho 'Hotstix' Mabuse during the GQ Men of the Year Awards at the Four Seasons Hotel in Johannesburg on 27 November 2021. (Photo: Gallo Images / Oupa Bopape)



Mabuse said no discernible capacity has been built to incentivise young people to become active participants in the industry.

“Young people all the time read about the sorry state of musicians and actors who die in poverty. The impression formed is that the industry, if artists and musicians die in poverty, is not lucrative and so they see no future in being part of it.”

The person who now bore the responsibility to help fix “the broken industry” was the flamboyant McKenzie, from the Patriotic Alliance.

“He has been speaking in the streets in recent times and on social media. This must stop. We want to see him and his department of arts inviting us to an indaba so that he can spell out his vision.

“Most of the artists I have spoken to want him to desist from shaming artists in public. If there are issues, they want him to talk to them directly, not via social media. This is a strange method of the government department talking to others through social media platforms.”

Shortly after being sworn in as minister, McKenzie caused a stir by saying artists and athletes wrongfully benefited from the Covid-19 Relief Fund.

His social media posts included: “I have given an instruction that a list be published of all artists, creatives and sports people who have been receiving money from the department of sports, arts and culture be published inclusive of money and reasons.

“If you did nothing wrong and didn’t benefit untowardly you have no reason to worry.”



The posts have not endeared him to the likes of the ANC Youth League, EFF and the Cultural and Creative Industries Federation of South Africa. He has been criticised for being insensitive to the plight of many who suffered because of the debilitating pandemic.

“I have nothing against McKenzie, but to unjustly demean others in public is unfair,” Mabuse added.

McKenzie, however, dug in his heels, saying that publishing the list and names of beneficiaries of the Relief Fund was solely for the sake of transparency. 

Building arts facilities in Soweto


Turning to the state of facilities in Soweto, where he grew up, Mabuse said: “There is a long way to get facilities right. Barring the Soweto Theatre, there is nothing decent one can write home about, and this replicates itself in all black townships throughout the country.

“The minister has a duty to tell us how he hopes to correct the issue, and we look forward to his invitation.”

A lot of work and collaboration with the government is needed, he said, and the government of national unity has much to do to improve the industry.

It would be “much better if our arts minister is less brazen in his approach to issues, and [respected] others. We live in a democratic culture, and this must not be compromised in any way”.

“The skop en donder melodramatic approach tends to create tensions, and we must avoid this.”

Sipho 'Hotstix' Mabuse at a party for this 70th birthday in Johannesburg on 2 November 2021. (Photo: Gallo Images / Oupa Bopape)


Songs and social justice


With an upbringing steeped in Black Consciousness, Mabuse is driven by this philosophy – as articulated by Steve Biko – as well as the conviction of the ANC to fight for social justice, “something I have been doing for nearly 60 years of my life”.

He was an underground ANC operative, dug into the trenches of the Struggle against apartheid, alongside fellow activists from that party, the United Democratic Front and others, including Mosiuoa Terror Lekota and Cyril Ramaphosa.

He has recorded more than 30 songs, including Burn Out (1987), Nelson Mandela and Thaba Bosiu (both 1996).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLFlcXk0ec0

Asked whether he sees himself as financially successful, considering the fame he has enjoyed, Mabuse said: “I am reluctant to measure my success in financial terms, because my take about success is that success is relative. But what I can say without any equivocation is that I have been able to sustain myself beyond the age of 50, leading a relatively modest and good life, and never have to see myself as going through financial distress, and not having to ask for financial support from anyone.”   

And what was his most joyous moment?

“When I turned 70 in 2021, it was the most spectacular moment in my life – a moment of great joy and jubilation.” 

Former president Kgalema Motlanthe had sent him a note which “I regarded as prized and special”. It reads: “My brother, Sipho, we have come a long way together, and through your 70-year-long pilgrimage to the highest echelons of social, cultural, and artistic eminence, we remember the distinguished milestones of your life and honour this as a moment for all South Africans to consider your pioneering contribution to African music and a global movement of expression.”

With a twinkle in his eye, Mabuse ended the interview thus: “This is what makes me. The president’s kind words.”

Mabuse’s track record


Sipho “Hotstix” Mabuse has appeared on stages around the globe – in various parts of Africa, the UK, the US, France, Germany and Italy – with icons such as Hugh Masekela, Miriam Makeba, Gloria Bosman and Jimmy Dludlu.

Birthplace


Mabuse was born in Soweto on 2 November 1951.

An ear for music


Mabuse developed a musical ear as an eight-year-old. At 15, he had a professional stint on the drums, began to play professionally, and formed a band, the Beaters, which morphed into Harari.

Asked about his nickname, Mabuse giggled and then erupted into laughter, as he described who baptised him “Hotstix”. “It was a fellow musician, Condry Ziqubu, of Skorokoro and Via Orlando fame, who in impeccable isiZulu in the mid-1980s, said to me, ‘Mfana uyashisa’, which is to say, friend you are as hot as brimstone, you are peerless and no one can match you in this game as a drummist.”

Mabuse dropped out of Orlando West High School. “I was a mere boy of 15, also ambitious, and believed then I could make a successful career in music, which I did.”

Forty-five years later, at the age of 60 in 2012, he matriculated through part-time study, and has not given up hope of pursuing undergraduate studies in anthropology. DM

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