FALLING IDOLS
Who will be left standing?
● A school pupil takes on a barber in tonight’s finals of the 14th season of Idols SA.
At 17, Yanga Sobetwa from Delft in Cape Town is the youngest in this year’s contest. She is going up against 24-year-old Thato Makape, who holds the record for the longest journey to an Idols audition after he trekked 1,250km over many days, using public transport to get from Postmasburg in the Northern Cape to Cape Town.
Fans are more interested in his great abs. And the fact that he dropped out of school to care for his sick mom.
The two contestants told the Sunday Times the road to the top has been “exciting and fun”. Sobetwa, who was 16 when she entered, put her school career on hold to fulfil her dream, and says a win would also be a win for her family. Growing up with her parents and two sisters in Delft on the Cape Flats, she was the only singer in the house. “My family know that winning would be a dream come true for me,” said Sobetwa, who is also a keen rugby player.
Last season’s winner, Paxton Fielies, was also 16 when she entered. This year Fielies released her debut album, This is Me, and was invited to Sweden as part of the World Children’s Prize Foundation’s drive to raise awareness of children’s rights. She was made an ambassador for Sweden’s Queen Silvia’s “You Me: Equal Rights” campaign. Sobetwa will be writing her grade 11 exams next month, and will be home-schooled in the new year.
Before taking to the Idols SA stage for the last time, she’ll say a prayer and remind herself that “either way I am a winner”. This week members of her community held a prayer meeting for her. Makape, Postmasburg’s singing barber, has been planning his Idols SA journey for at least three years.
He dropped out of school in grade 11 to care for his mom, who had cancer. Makape said his journey “wasn’t that tough but it was slow”. Makape felt duty bound to take care of things when the hospital bills kept coming in (his father died in 2003). With only a guitar, three pairs of shoes and six Tshirts, he left home to try to make enough money to pay the bills.
It took eight months of busking and being homeless in Durban, Johannesburg, Bloemfontein and the Eastern Cape before Makape could return home to settle his mom’s bill. Makape said he has been “scrutinising the competition. I would go to auditions in Pretoria and Joburg and take notes.
“I’ve seen from previous winners that after the competition you can’t relax, you can’t be quiet. I plan to continue to hustle.”