Katlego Maboe chats to us about his lyrical battle against racism

Johannesburg – The fight against racism is an on-going battle that has plagued South Africans for years. Expresso presenter, Katlego Maboe, knows this, which is why he decided to take a stand against racism the best way he knows how – through music.

Chatting to The Juice about his new song, RACE (against time), Katlego says he wanted to address the problem before it’s too late.

“I feel like in a matter of years, or number of years, we would have gone so far down that rabbit hole that we wouldn’t even know how to start a decent conversation regarding race, let alone how to sort out the issues that are so deeply seeded in. So I wanted to start a conversation and try to put a positive spin on it using words like ‘it doesn’t matter if you’re black or white. It shouldn’t matter if you’re black or white’.”

The song, which was written by the presenter, tackles the issue of racism in South Africa, with thought-provoking lines like, “What is race? It’s a space where hate discriminates the face, where an absence of love breeds a strong distaste.”

While he is currently in talks about a music video for the song, Katlego has a bigger goal which he plans on reaching by Nelson Mandela Day. “We all know that on Nelson Mandela Day, a lot of people dedicate 67 minutes, some of them do 67 hours in community service. So I decided that I’m going to set myself and the team a big task, and we’re trying to reach the mammoth total of 67 000 units that we want pre-sold.” It’s all for a good cause, whether the singer reaches his goal or not, all proceeds made from sales will go to the Anti Racism Network of South Africa.

A goal much bigger than record sales is one that he has for our country. “I want to create a world in which my children don’t have to experience the oppression that I had experienced or that my grandparents or parents had to experience when they were growing up.”

RACE (against time) is available for download on www.MiTracks.fm.