Official 2025 release photograph: MAYVIS — Apple Music
Producer and DJ bridging gqom, 3-step and amapiano
Dlala Thukzin — Thuthuka Wandile Zindlovu, born and raised in Lamontville, Durban — has been producing since 2016, when he cut tracks for gqom star Babes Wodumo as a teenager. His signature is synthesis: gqom's menace, amapiano's swing and afro tech's polish folded into the rolling hybrid South Africans now call 3-step.
Phuze (2021) went gold and its remix double platinum, but iPlan (2023) is his biggest record to date, topping multiple South African charts and earning double-platinum certification. AmaGear, with Zee Nxumalo, debuted at number five in 2024; Finally Famous Too won Best Dance Album at SAMA31 in December 2025; and the projects 031 Studio Camp 2.0 and MAYVIS kept 2025 moving, alongside a BET Award nomination for Best New International Act.
SAI HLE’s Red Bull Symphonic performance showed that national television still has cultural power. In a fragmented digital era, SABC1 gave the sister duo a shared national introduction.
Red Bull Symphonic’s Afro House, Our Home brings Sun-El Musician and Dlala Thukzin into the concert hall with Maestro Chad Hendricks and a full orchestra, turning South African electronic music into a serious cultural archive.
SAMA32’s shortlist shows a South African music industry no longer defined by one centre. From Durban Gqom to Maskandi, Amapiano, Jazz, Gospel and regional scenes, the country’s sound is spreading power across many hubs.
Africa Rising Music Conference 2026 matters because it focuses on the systems behind the sound: publishing, technology, cross-border collaboration, artist protection, and the infrastructure African music needs to survive global attention.
Jazzwrld is billed alongside Thukuthela for the first full live-band edition of the We'R Afro tour in Africa, from 18:00 at Uhuru Gardens. Further guests were still to be announced at the time of listing.
Dlala Thukzin is named on the Phase 1 line-up of Oscar Mbo's Grxxvy Escape at The River Cabin, Fourways, with Nasty C. Gates 14:00, no under-18s.
Nasty C is billed on the Phase 1 line-up of Oscar Mbo's Grxxvy Escape day festival at The River Cabin in Fourways, alongside Dlala Thukzin. Gates 14:00, no under-18s; earlier ticket phases have sold out.
Oscar Mbo headlines his own Grxxvy Escape day festival at The River Cabin in Fourways, with Nasty C and Dlala Thukzin on the announced Phase 1 line-up and further phases still to be revealed. Runs 14:00 to 00:01, no under-18s; VIP tables from R20,000.
Mörda appears on the billed lineup for the Johannesburg edition of Grxxvy Escape, a 14:00-to-midnight day party at The River Cabin in Fourways. Tickets are on sale via Quicket (Super Early Bird R320 and Early Bird R390 sold out; General P1 R450, General P2 R550, Late Bird R650). Note: the official Quicket page still lists Phase 2 and 3 artists as to be announced, so Mörda's set is billed on listings rather than the promoter's own lineup graphic.
Kabza De Small leads the line-up for the third edition of the food, fashion and music festival, themed 'Evophoria', running 26–27 September. He is billed for the Sunday as one half of the Scorpion Kings with DJ Maphorisa, on a day skewed toward house and amapiano. Gates 12:00 to 23:00, 18+.
