Best South African Songs of 2022

At the beginning of each year we reflect on what we think were the best South African songs of the previous year. 2022 was another good year for South African music, with a healthy array of new music released. We are highlighting 24 songs which we think everyone should listen to.

Once again there were several new releases from veteran South African musicians. Ivan Kadey from late ’70s-early ’80s band National Wake, is back with a new band (IKD Band) and album, Edge of Time, from which we feature the title track. The album marks a shift from the more intense reggae-punk influenced music of yonder years towards a more subtle introspection. Robin Auld is another veteran South African singer with early roots in the SA punk-ska scene (with the Lancaster Band) who is still releasing new music. Auld has released solo albums for four decades now, and his latest, The Everlovin’ Wind is excellent. “About A Boy” is an upbeat track that implores you to get up and boogie.

There are several musicians who have more recently become veterans or are veterans-in-the-making (we are not quite sure at what point a musician becomes a veteran). Fuzigish have made a welcome return with a self-titled album, with the track “Believer” reminding us what a good ska-jol band they are. Also back with new releases are: Laurie Levine, the song “Dunes” is the title track of her EP; Nakhane, with the EP, Leading Lines, from which we feature “My Ma Was Good”; and Anna Wolf with the EP, Romance Was Born, from which we have taken “Heaven Breathes”. Zolani Mohala of Freshlyground released the single “Wawandithembisile”, a track featuring Kenza & Sun El Musician. “Snake Oil City” is taken from Dan Patlansky’s Shelter Of Bones album, which has been receiving good reviews far and wide. Lucy Kruger & the Lost Boys were back with the third of their trilogy of albums, release in consecutive years. “Risk” is taken from Teen Tapes (For Performing Your Own Stunts), yet another exceptional album. We have also included a single by Dope St Jude, “You’re Gonna Make It”.

The Kongos, like several of the musicians on this mixtape, are now based overseas (they are in the USA), and “Speak Free” is taken from their album 1929, Part 3. The London-based Soap Girls released the album In My Skin, which opens with the high-energy punkish “Breathe”, the track we have included here. “Malele” is taken from Montparnasse Musique’s self-titled EP, released by Real World Records.

Mongrel Records is an exciting newish South African label who have produced a steady flow of releases over the past few years. 2022 was a continuation of that. Apart from the aforementioned Fuzigish album, there were new releases (featured here) from Evert Snyman & the Aviary, the Pruning In The Dark album from which we have chosen “I Never Listen When You Speak”, and a few singles, including “Dead Flowers” by the Filthy Hippies, and “The Veneer” by A Million Ways To Die, a project of former No Friends of Harry band members, Rob McLennan and Dace de Vetta.

This mixtape also features some notable single releases by artists who are fairly new on the music scene: “Blacksnake Blues” by All Them Witches, “Triomf” by The Great Yawn, and “Polar Operational Environmental Satellite” by We Kill Cowboys.

There are also several songs from artists with first time official releases in 2022: Australian-based Ruby Gill’s debut album, I Forgot To Be Profound Today, is more than well worth listening to. We have included the title track. Vietnam-based Madele’ Vermaak released her debut EP, A Pocket Full Of Stones, from which we have selected “Love Breaks Time”. There were noteworthy single releases from by West Coast Wolves, (“Factory Of Bones”), Lokaly (“Breathing”), and East London band, Can Of Worms (“Pillow”). We look forward to more music from these artists in the next year or so.

Once again, we hope you enjoy most, if not all, these songs, and that you end up exploring details about the various musicians and their music. There are several 2022 albums and Eps we think are worth buying, or streaming, and we hope you do! Also look out for live performances, these artists rely on your support!

  1. Believer – Fuzigish
  2. I Forgot To Be Profound Today – Ruby Gill
  3. Wawandithembisile – Zolani Mohala featuring Kenza & Sun El Musician
  4. My Ma Was Good – Nakhane
  5. Edge Of Time – IKD Band
  6. Dunes – Laurie Levine
  7. Speak Free – Kongos
  8. Factory Of Bones – West Coast Wolves
  9. Breathing – Lokaly
  10. I Never Listen When You Speak – Evert Snyman & the Aviary
  11. All About A Boy – Robin Auld
  12. Malele – Montparnasse Musique
  13. Breathe – The Soap Girls
  14. Blacksnake Blues – All Them Witches
  15. Snake Oil City – Dan Patlansky
  16. Risk – Lucy Kruger & the Lost Boys
  17. Love Breaks Time – Madele’ Vermaak
  18. Triomf – The Great Yawn
  19. Heaven Breathes – Anna Wolf
  20. Polar Operational Environmental Satellite – We Kill Cowboys
  21. Dead Flowers – Filthy Hippies
  22. The Veneer – A Million Ways To Die
  23. Pillow – Can of Worms
  24. You’re Gonna Make It – Dope St Jude

Post ’94 Protest Music in South Africa

This week marks the second anniversary of mixtapes.ZA. To mark the occasion we have put together a mixtape of post-1994 protest songs, reflecting on how popular musicians have continued to speak out against injustice, despite the toppling of the apartheid government.

South African protest music against the apartheid system is well documented and has been featured in various mixtapes over the past two years. When, in 1994, the African National Congress came to power it was hoped that there would no longer be a need for protest music against injustices. However, extreme poverty and government corruption have continued. As the gap between the rich and poor grew, and public infrastructure deteriorated, some musicians began to protest the ongoing economic inequalities and government corruption through their music. Others also protested the relentless violent misogynist attacks against women which characterize life in South Africa.

This mixtape features a selection of music from different genres which tackle a cross-section of injustices. While there is some debate about what constitutes a protest song, for this mixtape we have selected songs which voice opposition to an injustice. Sometimes the songs are angry, other times they are mournful, and on occasion they are even humorous, when musicians use laughter as a weapon against injustice.

After the initial euphoria that came with the ending of apartheid, musicians began to voice concerns about greed and self-interest in the ANC government. In their 1998 release, “Put Off Saving The World”, Dorp tackled the problem of greed, both in society generally and within the government – “We’ve got inside information; On government masturbation; Don’t need no explanation; To come to a conclusion; It’s a fuct up situation.”

This situation worsened and as the early 2000s set in, service delivery was failing, infrastructure was falling apart and corruption was spreading. In “Potholes And Politicians”, Fuzigish drew a direct connection between government corruption and failing infrastructure: “On my way back home I hit another pothole; The government’s corrupted, the constitution is ill; All I seem to do is pay another bill.” While The A. K. Massive reflected that government lies and corruption put paid to dreams of a better future: “Ahh corruption! No more lies … In a country that teaches you to reach for the future, but be satisfied with less …” Similarly, in “Die Stad Bloei Vanaand”, Johannes Kerkorrel agonizes, “the dream was promised, but just another lie has been sold.”

During the Zuma years government corruption in the form of state capture was so appalling that Freshlyground called South Africa a “Banana Republic”:

All your people dying in freedom
Suffering a profound lack of leading
Are you even there when we call?
Are you a human, man?
Full of lies! Can’t believe what I’m hearing
From your lips a river of scheming
Poisoning all the water we’re drinking
Are we good to go?
Emergency
Discovery
No opportunity
It’s just another day in the Banana Republic
State of emergency!!!!

Freshlyground’s reference to the current situation as a “State of Emergency” especially rankled ANC supporters because it effectively compared Zuma’s abuse of power to that of the apartheid state, who tried to hold on to power through the declaration of a series of States of Emergency in the mid-to-late 1980s. Simphiwe Dana similarly draws a comparison between the two eras – in “State of Emergency”. She protests the way conditions in post-apartheid South Africa mirror the conditions facing the youth of 1976: “Only poverty reigns in our streets”. Lilitha’s “Marikana” also stands as a comparison between apartheid South Africa and the current ANC regime: this time miners shot dead by the new South African Police Services, defending the interests of mining capital.

Johnny Clegg’s “Asilazi” is “about an ordinary person who has to give up power to guarantee
their place in an uncertain tomorrow and the chorus is about those who have been waiting for
so long for this change to take place” (Johnny Clegg). While in “Zabalaza”, Thandiswa
Mazwai considers how those people waited in vain. She laments the state of South Africa and
asks how these atrocities can be happening in her father’s house, suggesting that the
government ought to be the father of the nation, securing everyone’s needs: “Why is it this
way? At my own father’s house; For their blood, sweat and tears; For their struggle and pain;
’Cause they gave up their lives for this.”

“Skunk Atavistic” by Lesego Rampolokeng & Kalahari Surfers is a stream of consciousness type dub poem with moments of bitter protest such as “Amandla for what? Not a fist you are clinching; It’s your sphincter.” Meanwhile in “Politics” Skwatta Kamp overtly and angrily protested the failure of the ANC government to deliver a better society to South Africans:

To me political parties are like escort agencies,
Those that fuck around the most get more money.
Of course they work hard to make their own pockets fat.
They don’t give a fuck about you and me it’s all an act.
Call me ignorant but I know my shit, I got direction.
Why the fuck you think I don’t take part in these elections.
Flabba signing out A-N-C you later.
Skwatta Kamp people’s thoughts are always greater.

Karen Zoid and Kaalvoet Prinses address the most appalling feature of South African society: endemic sexual violence against women. Zoid sings “Justice! Justice! Lock up all the rapists and thrown away the key” while Kaalvoet Prinses (Tremaine Barnes) who champions the Barefoot Campaign which supports victims and survivors of gender based violence, also protests violence against women with her call to action: “Women gave birth to this human race; And a new born girl gets a can of mace …”

Some musicians have used satire, irony and humour to critique human rights abuse and corruption. Witty and biting criticism is able to ridicule those in the wrong, and the subsequent laughter signifies moral triumph over the wrong doing.

In “Die Fokkol Song” (“The Fuck All Song”), Koos Kombuis makes humorous use of the term ‘fuck all” to ridicule and protest the government’s inability to provide South Africa’s basis needs. The song was released prior to the 2010 Football World Cup, and he introduced the song as though it was a welcome message broadcast to tourists arriving at the airport:

“Welcome to the airport, it’s the year 2010, I’m assuming you’re here to watch the soccer games. We finally have a chance to show the world our friendly democracy, so make yourself at home.

Fuck all petrol, Fuck all diesel, Fuck all TV, Fuck all power, Fuck all water in your whisky, Fuck all jokes to laugh about, Fuck all pills at the clinic, Fuck all doctors when you ask, Fuck all people to take the rubbish from your pavement… Welcome to South Africa. Yes, Welcome to South Africa.”

Roger Lucey set his song “Dalai Lama” to the tune of a traditional South African song “Daar Kom Die Alibama” (“There Comes The Alibama”) which apparently commemorated the visit of the warship, ‘The Alibama’, to Cape Town in 1863. Lucey made use of the similar sounding names to sing a humorously cutting critique of the Zuma government’s unlawful (pro-China) refusal to grant the Dalai Lama a South African visa to attend Desmond Tutu’s 80th birthday celebrations. In “House Of Parliament Blues” Tony Cox uses humour mock the shenanigans which go on in Parliament.

In “Blue Light Brigade” the Kalahari Surfers cut and paste Julius Malema’s outrageous verbal attack against a journalist to both criticize and ridicule his behaviour, which is characteristic of the general arrogance of the ruling party politicians (at that stage Malema was an ANC member), most clearly evidenced in the way they race through the streets escorted by the South African Police with no regard for road rules or the rights of the average citizen:

Blue light Brigade
not another cavalcade
to knock you off your bike
as they jump a red light
or beat you to the ground
like a dog
to the sound
of the sirens
and the violence
unleashed
when you express your outrage

When Justin Nurse’s satirical T-shirt company, Laugh It Off, produced a T-shirt which parodied South African Breweries’ Black Label beer (“Black Labour, White Guilt”), South African Breweries sued them. David Kramer recorded and contributed the song “More Reward” towards a fund-raiser CD to help with legal costs. The song protests South African Breweries’ practices: “As we raise out glasses now that freedom’s here; Does the working man really profit from the beer?”

SOIL 7T7 and Half Price protest racism and capitalism respectively. “Can’t Keep Us Down” by SOIL 7T7 is a protest song by means of mobilising people against racism. They sing, “You can’t keep us down; ‘Cos we are coming around .. And we’re never gonna give it up”. Half Price’s “Guess It’s War” also calls for people to mobilise: “we should fight for our freedom, I think that we should die for what we believe in. If you think that it’ll end up alright. That’s bullshit cause it won’t, no it won’t. Fight, fight, fight, fight, fight.”

What these songs show us is that while there are issues we need to protest, South African democracy allows for such protests to be voiced. Songs like these would most probably have been banned by the apartheid government and/or the South African Broadcasting Corporation. And so, for now, that’s one thing we don’t have to protest.

  1. Banana Republic – Freshlyground (2017)
  2. State Of Emergency – Simphiwe Dana (2012)
  3. Zabalaza – Thandiswa Mazwai (2004)
  4. Marikana – Lilitha (2016)
  5. 41 000 Sisters – Kaalvoet Prinses (2019)
  6. Justice! Justice! – Karen Zoid (2015)
  7. Asilazi – Johnny Clegg (2006)
  8. More Reward – David Kramer (2003)
  9. Skunk Atavistic – Lesego Rampolokeng & Kalahari Surfers (2021)
  10. Blue Light Brigade – Kalahari Surfers (2012)
  11. House Of Parliament Blues – Tony Cox (2016)
  12. Dalai Lama – Roger Lucey (2011)
  13. Die Fokkol Song – Koos Kombuis (2008)
  14. Can’t Keep Us Down – SOIL 7T7 (2003)
  15. Politics – Skwatta Kamp (2002)
  16. Put Off Saving The World – Dorp (1998)
  17. Potholes And Politicians – Fuzigish (2002)
  18. Ahh Corruption – AK Massive (2005)
  19. Guess It’s War – Half Price (2006)
  20. Die Stad Bloei Vanaand – Johannes Kerkorrel (2000)