Born Njabulo Mthunzi Ndimande in the town of Hammersdale, Mthunzi was given his second name by his grandfather, which refers to “uMthunzi wokuphumula amatshitshi namajongosi”, loosely translated as “a place of rest for the maidens”. His late mother always believed that he would become a force to be reckoned with. Before he had even reached his third birthday, she encouraged him to sing in front of his young friends and members of the community, an experience which soon carved confidence, pride and resilience into his personality. With his growing passion for music, Mthunzi would mimic the esteemed late Whitney Houston at his primary school assembly and was once so overwhelmed by emotion that he was brought to tears. These early experiences led him to further performances in church and in the local community halls. His upbringing in Hammersdale provided the necessary platform to later become the superstar that he is, emerging from a community that still has not recovered from the effects of the apartheid era, and has yet to embrace the ethos of Ubuntuism. It was only in the year 2018, when he contacted the three-time SAMA winning producer Sanele Sithole –also known as Sun-El Musician- that good fortune came his way. He flatly refuses to be boxed into any particular genre, adding with a chuckle that “If l get a house beat, I usually write RnB in Zulu, which in music terms would be called Afropop, but l’d still flip it to sound like Maskandi”.
