Sandile,
the music legend
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There
is truth in the saying that you should not judge a book
by its cover. Sandile is the sort of guy you would not
look at twice. He does not look like South Africa’s best
cord guitar player. In fact a very few players in the
whole world match his guitar skills. Don’t be misled by
the way he looks.
His CV looks like the who’s who of the South African Music
industry. He has played with the likes of Hugh Masekela,
Bheki Mseleku, Mankunku Ngozi, Pat Matshikiz, Abdullah
Ibrahim and Busi Mhlongo to name a few of South Africa’s
music legends. He has been to the world’s biggest jazz
stage- the Montreal Jazz Festival. He has been strumming
the guitar for forty odd years.
It all started in Rain Coat at a place known as Second
River somewhere in Umkhumbane. Those who know the rich
history of Cato Manor will tell you that place was situated
where the towering Inkosi Albert Luthuli Hospital is built.
“Back then the only music we heard came from a gramophone.
Even those were scarce. To compensate we would attend
stokvels where live music was performed during week-ends.
We would then go to the beachfront to pick whatever piece
of string that was left by the fishermen to create our
own guitars,” said Sandile with obvious nostalgia for
the good old days. Sandile is the first to admit that
the music industry is a fierce and competitive business.
It can make and break within the blink of an eye. Musicians
have to work and work to earn money. “It is not always
rosy. It deprives you of family life. It is always a struggle
unless you are able to make CDs and sell them. Today the
many musicians and students from Technikons and University
are fast becoming a competition because they too need
to play at gigs to show case their stuff. Sandile is the
father of five girls and one boy. |
The
History of Cato Manor
Most
of our readers are aware Easter 2001 will be celebrated differently
throughout Cato Manor. Umkhumbane Institute are working around
the clock to ensure that the Easter holidays are indeed something
to remember.
It has always been our purpose to share with our readers the
history of Cato Manor. Recently one of Cato Manor’s sons of
the soil Alfred Nokwe sent us a page from his experiences
in UMKHUMBANE. Now read on....
“That is what it was called, named after the river that went
through from Bellair meandering past Cabazini then Draaihoek,
bypassing Ezimbuzini and forking out to Mgenge and Nettleton
Road bordering Chesterville.
The Municipality had built an aquaduct at the bottom of Nettleton
Road and this was a favourite “skiing resort” for the children
of Umkhumbane. You see, the little channel was all slimy and
slippery because of the lichens and mosses. That is where
you would see naked little black bums sliding up and down
the ntshununu.
Umkhumbane was sublet to Asiatics at the turn of the century
by Whites who had been given the land by George Cato. The
Asiatics cultivated and ploughed the land supplying the so
called English Market with fresh vegetables. They never looked
back!
Big employers of cheap labour were the Shipping Companies,
Non Ferrous Metals, Textile Mills, Bakers Limited who by the
way, had no modern equipment like what is used these days,
but men kneaded the dough with their feet – we were told.
Deliveries for milk, bread, ice etc were by horse cart. Guess
who cleaned up after the horses? Now all these employers of
mass labour provided compounds for single sex accommodation
and the Municipality had Men’s Hostels. Women were supposed
to remain in the homelands! Occasionally they naturally wanted
to visit their husbands and Umkhumbane was the ideal place
to rent a room in a shack.
This is what started shack farming where about two hundred
rickety structures were built on land the size of a rugby
field. There was so much congestion and squalor and disease.
The child mortality rate was very high with gastro enteritis
being the killer disease. It was not unusual to issue 50 BMD
3 permits in one day. (death certificates).
People from all corners of KwaZulu converged on Umkhumbane
and there was even more squalor. Interestingly, the Munici
pality ignored the pleas of Health Authorities to provide
health care in the shacklands.
Meantime friction was brewing between the Asiatics who were
by now extremely rich and the Africans (or Capris or Kenny
ous as they were disparagingly known) got poorer and poorer.
Tales of Pelwaaan beating up people who wanted their change
from his shops were rampant.
Poverty, oppression by the authorities and the Asiatic neighbours,
disease, the political dispensation and jobless-ness ignited
the riots!
George Madondo was only the matchstick. Contrary to what some
people say, George, who was well known to me, was pushed against
a window pane in Victoria Street resulting in a deep gash
across his face with blood spilling all over his shirt. This
is the scene that angered the Rickshas who were waiting to
pick up fares from across the beerhall after lunch. The rest
is history, as they say in the classics. Once started, there
was no stopping the assault. It spread like wild fire. Tense
feelings burst the bubble.”
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Recently
another innocent was taken away through the use of illegally
connected electricity wires. It is alleged that the child
was electrocuted and eventually died after touching the
uninsulated wires that hung next to an outside toilet. A
bystander who tried to help the child received mild electric
shocks but fortunately survived. The person who did these
illegal connections may be aware of the risks involved,
however, he did not bother to take safety precautions to
ensure that his connection does not have a tragic end.