DJ Zinhle on singlehood and her book
Launch of self-help book and album with African touch
After two doomed public love affairs, DJ Zinhle is currently single and loving it.
She struts into our office in a pair of equestrian-style knee-high boots when she arrives for her tête-à-tête with Time Out. She is rocking oversized Privé Revaux sunglasses – after all she has just been named ambassador for the international eyewear brand, joining actor Jamie Foxx. DJ Zinhle is in high spirits on rather a mild winter afternoon.
Over the past five years, the house music maestro has had much publicised relationships and even more public break-ups. First with baby daddy Kiernan “AKA” Forbes and then Brendon Naidoo. DJ Zinhle says the joy of being single is freedom to do whatever you like.
“I think we just put too much on having a relationship. It’s worse for me because I’m that person that is never single,” she says.
“Living on my own has kind of spoilt me. I can wake up and put flowers on my wall if I want. Wake up and play music loudly. I’m enjoying this time by myself. I feel like it’s too stressful to be in a relationship.”
DJ Zinhle adds that she has her hands full with her two-year-and-eightmonth-old daughter,
Kairo Forbes. She is successfully coparenting with rapper AKA.
“Co-parenting is going well.
Kiernan and I are at a good stage and space in our lives. He’s very supportive and a good dad.
“We are different, he’s stricter than I am and I think Kairo enjoys the dynamics.
Good co-parenting comes from a good relationship and it’s just about putting all your
other differences aside and focusing on the child.”
This Monday, DJ Zinhle and businesswoman Nokubonga Mbanga will release their female empowerment self-help book Meeting Your Power. The ladies met and hit it off immediately when they worked together on SABC1 docu-series It Takes a Village.
Mbanga says: “The book is inspired by our experiences as women. With the show we learnt some stuff about other women and what we saw was that they were going through challenges we went through.”
DJ Zinhle adds: “I think as South African women we don’t read self-help books and my growth has come from me reading books; that has taught me about myself and pushed me back to myself.
“We want women to start worrying about themselves more.
“We talk about this self-love all the time but we don’t even know what it is and how to work on it.”
DJ Zinhle teases that she will next be sharing new music with her fans. She is currently in studio with long-time collaborator DJ Oskido working on her much-waited album.
“Now that I’m done with books, I’m focusing on music. I’ve sent music to a couple of girls because I want to bring more of an African footprint than I currently have. So I have sent songs to Victoria Kimani [Kenya], Vanessa Mdee [Tanzania] and I’m also sending a song to Lizha James from Mozambique because I want to work with girls from different parts of the continent.”