There were scenes of jubilation and excitement when maskandi lovers gathered at Khayelitsha Stadium for the official launch of the Ezedlamlenze Cape Town branch on Sunday December 8.
Ezedlamlenze is the fan base of leading maskandi artist Nkosikhona Mpungose, better known as Khuzani in the industry.
Khuzani is based in Durban but flew all the way from Johannesburg to attend the event which also saw local artists and radio presenters entertaining the audience.
The strong wind and scorching heat did not dampen the fans’ spirit.
Khuzani, who describes himself as King of Maskandi, said he is the first maskandi artist to officially open a maskandi fan branch in the province and he wants to interact with his audience.
Khuzani said it was important to have these branches because it gives fans a platform to engage with their favourite maskandi artists and also brings the artists closer to their fans. He said maskandi is the only genre in the country which has started this initiative of opening branches for fans.
Khuzani said these kind of platforms enable their fans to directly interact with him and make suggestions on what he could do to improve his music.
But most importantly, he said when he releases an album he knows that there are people who will buy the original album and that eliminates piracy.
He said when he opens such branches he knows that he has people rallying behind him.
He said it was important to build structured fan bases across the country.
“I feel extremely proud that I have launched the brand. I did not contribute anything towards this event as everything was organised by my fans. I’m the first artist to launch this maskandi branch in this province.
My fans made everything possible. I applaud them and I always cherish them. My primary duty was just to come and confirm that the Cape Town branch has been opened. I want others to join this structured fan base movement. Each and every province must have a branch.”
Branch chairperson Diba Ganyaza said they decided to host the event to show that there was a structured fan base for Khuzani in Cape Town even though he is based in Durban.
He said they established their branch in 2017 and have been building it ever since so they felt that it should be officially launched this year.
Mr Ganyaza said they then decided to call Khuzani to attend the ceremony and know that he has a branch in Cape Town. He said they also decided to ask local artists to take part in the event.
“There are lots of people who love Khuzani. And many wanted to see him.
“We wanted him to come and see the love that people have for his music.
“We did not want him to pay anything towards the event. We wanted to grow the love for maskandi in the province because we all know maskandi artists in the province are undermined,” he said. Talking about challenges, he said they planned to host the event at Philippi Stadium but a day before the event they were informed that the permit was not approved.