Latest news with #Nkwenkwezi
The Citizen
31-07-2025
- Sport
- The Citizen
Strike with Striker: Master jockey aims to go out with a bang at the Vaal
The veteran jockey will call it a day on Thursday. Piere 'Striker' Strydom has his last rides before retirement at the Vaal racecourse on Thursday. The great jockey will be keen to leave on a winning note – and a multitude of punters will be willing him on by backing the four horses he'll partner. His rides for the day are: Race 3: Xenophon Race 5: Nkwenkwezi Race 8: After Hours Race 9: Summer Winter All four runners have winning chances, though none is the proverbial penalty kick. The multiplier bet known variously as All To Come, Multi or Accumulator will be a popular choice among Strydom fans – with all four to win or, perhaps, a couple of them to place. A Betway Multi with Xenophon to win at 2.20, Nkwenkwezi and After Hours to place at 1.45 each, and Summer Winter to win at 2.70 would yield 10.65. All four to win would deliver 104.30 for the R1 wager unit. Three-year-old filly Xenophon is most tipsters' fancy and warrants a straight Win bet at 2.30. But it's worth noting that young rival Power Of Pearls (2.90) has been backed ante-post – despite returning from a six-month break, which followed a promising debut. Nkwenkwezi (4.20) is well overdue a maiden win but bumps likely favourite Babette's Feast (2.70). Exactas, Trifectas and Quartets with these two would be the wise way to go. A similar strategy could apply in the case of Strydom's penultimate ride. Veteran After Hours (4.00) always puts his best hoof forward but bumps up against juvenile stablemate Palace Prince (2.70), who is also in good form. The lucky last for the six-time champion jockey is one-time winner Summer Winter (2.70). The promising filly gives weight to all of The Navy Lark, Global Thunder, Predatrice and Deal Maker. Nonetheless, there'll be many sentimental Win bets riding on her.
IOL News
27-06-2025
- Entertainment
- IOL News
Pan Africanist artist Simphiwe Dana will enthrall crowds with her 'magic' at the Baxter
Simphiwe Dana at the Playhouse Image: Hugh Mdlalose IF THE Durban leg of her delightful concert over a week ago is anything to go by, loyal fans of music sensation Simphiwe Dana are in for a magical time at the Baxter this weekend. On Friday and Saturday, Dana is in Cape Town to round up her three-city 20th anniversary as a professional musician, her debut album, Zandisile took South Africa by storm in 2004 and gave us some of the most loved and enduring songs ever to come from this land recently. From the time the lights hit the expansive stage of the Opera, the 1224-seater at the Playhouse, Dana made a grand entrance with her anthemic Nkwenkwezi. As fans whistled, ululated, and went absolutely crazy, it was evident the Pan Africanist diva and her forces were in for epic vocal and spiritual libations of joyous music and dazzling lights. Despite a disappointingly average turnout, Dana and her 24-member band led by Tshepo Tsotetsi stuck to the mandate and turned the night into an unforgettable and intimate celebration I would not have wanted to miss for the world. Special guests, Clermont township choir, Red Light Choir added a perfect choral flavour to the evening. 'I am here to thank the people for supporting me all these years,' she said a few hours before the show. The chatty award-winning composer and band leader was determined to let her audience feel her appreciation, a theme she kept going till her final song for the night. 'Sanibonani bantu baKwaZulu!' From her greetings as her band was warming up, and throughout the show, her rapport with her audience was unbreakable. The thunderous response to her question whether anyone of Mpondo and Thembu ancestry was in the house or not was yet another show of her deep love for her cultural roots and their socio-philosophical anchorage. Gifted not just with a golden and versatile voice, Dana draws from a rich traditional South African blues, jazz and Southern African choral source whose Pan Africanist timbre and textures continue to attain depth and harmony of voice. Watching her and hearing her sing can take one to the old rural Transkei hinterlands where girls not only listened to the music of the elders, but also were adept at playing instruments such as umrhubhe-mouth bow. Although unlike her predecessors among them Nofinishi Dywili, Mantombi Matotiyana and Madosini, she does not play umrhubhe, at times her blues vocal style gestures to the echoes of their revered multivocal overtone singing style known as umngqokolo. Inasmuch as she has had a wide range of musical influences including jazz, reggae, hip-hop, gospel, Afro soul and maskandi over the years, as a politically and culturally conscious artist, Dana refuses to imprison her spirited repertoire to narrow prisms of fixed time, space and breadth. Neither does she feel comfortable being compared to her role models among them, iconic Sophiatown divas such as Miriam Makeba, Dorothy Masuku, Sophie Mgcina and Thandi Klaasen, insisting what they accomplished under harsh conditions is simply unrepeatable. Since she came into the scene in 2004 with her album, Zandisile, Dana has been searching for healing, affirming her life and the lives of people who are special to her. In Tribute to maMjoli, she remembers her beloved and stunningly beautiful late mother, Noziphumo maMjoli Dana who died of a Covid-19-related illness in 2021.
