He was just a little boy with a squeaky voice, sunglasses on his forehead, bars, and dance moves for days when he first got into entertainment.
“Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, Msawawa lo!” the then nine-year-old would sing alongside child star Mzambiya, in their hit Bowungakanani.
That was almost 23 years ago.
Although he is obviously not a little boy anymore, Msawawa, real name Sboniso Dlamini (30 when we spoke to him), says some people seem to forget.
“Some will randomly call out your name in the street like they are speaking to that little boy and forget that they need call you out respectively now, Msawawa has grown up,” he jokes.
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It has been decades.
“I have had to live with it,” he says. A lot has changed, he admits.
While people might feel like they know him well, but they don't. “People see you on stage and in clubs then they think you don’t kneel and pray. Growing up, I realised that the person I should worship is God. I am very strong in prayer. I do everything in prayer, and I am a very spiritual person,” he says.
He was undoubtedly the coolest kid the South African music at the time.
Being a child star isn't glamourous, he says. He might have looked like he was having a time of his life on stage, privately there was yearning for his parents. “It was hard to do but I had no choice. I moved from home and stayed in Joburg. It was hard for everyone, my parents too. At that age you still want love from your parents,” Msawawa says.
But apart from that, he says getting an opportunity to be influential at that age was amazing. "It was a blessing from God. Thank God that I was chosen, me and Mzambiya were the only kids who were able to be so well known. To date, there have not been any kids who were as famous as us.”
He's travelling to Johannesburg to perform the decades old song when we speak to him. It still has its fans, the KwaZulu Natal artist says.
He recently released a song with DJ Bongz featuring Noycdee and Terence Da poet, Le Mfundo. But although music still remains a part of his life, he is not big on releasing hit after hit. He now dabbles as a businessman and a philanthropist.
“I decided to use my name for meaningful things,” he adds. His Msawawa Youth Foundation is a non-profit organisation that was started in 2016.
The foundation donates school uniforms to children from poor backgrounds, he runs a feeding scheme and the Msawawa Dance Project finds and nurtures talent in rural areas.
“If you want to build a legacy, you have to build from scratch,” he says. Msawawa has streamlined projects within the foundation.
“My next big move with the foundation is to open a youth centre in Claremont,” he says.
Read more | Msawawa lends a helping hand
He is still inundated with questions from young people who want to make it in showbiz and want to be stars, Msawawa say. “You must just believe in yourself, do not always try to be someone else, or copy something that has been done by someone else. That is what I always say.”
