“I lost everything” – kwaito star Joe Nina is fighting for his comeback

Doreen Mokgolo

After years of living on a slippery slope, legendary kwaito star Joe Nina is working on rebuilding his life.

In 2001, he was involved in a horrific accident that left him in a coma for over a month.

He spent months in the Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital recovering. But soon after being discharged, his physical and emotional path to recovery was thrown off course when his father Solomon Xaba died.

“My father was the one person who believed in my recovery and motivated me to be positive when everyone, including doctors, believed I would never walk again.”

Joe felt he owed everything he had to his father; his ability to walk as well as his musical talent. He said: “He taught me everything I know about music.

“I remember after his funeral I had to make a decision to perform at the Black Consciousness Awareness Concert.

“I decided to go and dedicated my performance to him.”

In the same year, his now ex-wife served him with divorce papers.

His life was once again on a downward spiral and he says he did not have the emotional stability to fight back.

“I lost everything I had built through the years,” he said.

Joe explained that during life on the road, he had given up on love and only dated casually.

“My current wife, Nonhlanhla Xaba, was one of the ladies I dated casually. But we reconnected and decided to build a family together in 2016. In 2019, we formalised our union.

“Through the help of older artists, Sipho ‘Hotstick’ Mabuza, Steve Kekana and Babsy Mlangeni I was able to find myself again.

“I believe it is never too late to rebuild again, no matter how hard it gets.”

During lockdown, Joe turned one of the bedrooms in his KwaThema home into a studio. There he added final touches to his upcoming love song ‘Lukhanji’ – which features Sliq Angel.

He is also focusing on his music development project, Art East Centre, which works to discover new talent from Ekurhuleni.

Joe’s daughter Nayende Xaba, 20, was one of the first artists to sign up.

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