Everson Luhanga
There is an old saying that when life deals you a lemon, you make lemonade.
That’s what Nkosinathi Sam Gumede discovered after he was arrested for armed robbery and sent to Johannesburg’s Sun City prison.
For 13 months, he sat in prison knowing that he didn’t commit any crime. He was just in the wrong place and at the wrong time.
He said his two friends were involved in an armed robbery and came running to his house in Alexandra, north of Johannesburg.
“My two friends came to my house with money and bottles of expensive alcohol, they left everything there. Soon, I heard police knocking on my door and I was arrested in August 2019.”
He said he was taken to Sun City prison where he spent over a year. “I was denied bail all the time I appeared in court.
“The last two appearances, the complainant didn’t come to court and my legal aid lawyers argued that there was no case and I was released,” he said.
Nkosinathi said his jail time was the turning point of his life as he discovered talent while he was in the holding cells.
“I started singing and became a versatile rapper while in jail.
“Every morning people could gather in my cells when I gave them different pieces of music that healed their souls. I sing different genres like gospel, Hip hop, Mapiano, acapella and Afro-soul.”
Soon after his release from jail, Nkosinathi said he concentrated and focused on his music career. He released an EP called Kunzima with Mama as a hit track. “My mother showed me love when she used to visit me in prison.
“Every time she came, she would cry seeing me behind bars. This broke my heart and I composed a song to thank her for the love she showed me,” he said.
He said what hurts him is that he has never heard anything about his friends who got him into trouble. “The last time I heard from the police was that they were hunted and arrested too. But I have never been with them in the same courtroom,” he said.
Nkosinathi said he doesn’t want to concentrate on his past but rather put his focus on his new career as a musician. “I have made a studio in the one-room house where I stay and my producer is helping me finding an album that I am working on.”
