Claremont-based armed response guard, Landile Sokweba was the big winner at the fifth annual Eastern Cape Music Awards(ECMA) held in East London last month.
Under his stage name of Xhentsa Kumisiwe, he won awards for the best artist of the year, the best Maskandi artist and most voted-for artist at the ECMA, which he travelled to by bus.
Langa resident Mr Sokweba, 35, who is originally from Ngcobo, Eastern Cape, has been living in the Western Cape since 2007.
For the past four years he has been working for a Claremont- based security company as an armed response guard.
“I enjoy working as an armed response officer, it makes me happy to be one of the people who are fighting crime and protecting people and their assets,” he says.
Mr Sokweba has been passionate about music since the age of 12. “I remember singing for the boys when they go to the mountains and I was always the one that would start the singing or would lead it, and I also remember my time in the school choir where I was leading it at the age of 12,” he said.
As a full-time armed response officer he needs to find a balance between work and composing new music. “I take inspiration for my music from all aspects of life, at work, at home, and with friends and I think a part of me is always coming up with music ideas, no matter where I am,” he says.
He launched his first album titled Ndize Nkokwam in 2019 which translated to English means “I came by myself”.
His dream now is to be nominated – and maybe even win – an award at the 2022 South African Traditional Music Awards, he said.
