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AT every occasion there will be that one moment that will be a highlight and historical.

It is like kwaito music in the South African music history.

Without kwaito music our history is incomplete and, in actual fact, can be a boring story.

At Mandoza s funeral I was blown away when I saw all the kwaito music pioneers and artists who took to the stage to pay tribute to the legendary artist.

What I saw was more than just a performance it was a display of the music revolution after a new South Africa was born.

It was a moment of reflecting on a journey travelled by kwaito artists and the journey of kwaito music.

This music is beyond just a music genre but a voice of young South Africans in a democratic country.

This uniquely South African music genre emerged in the early 90s with the advent of democracy.

This translated into greater freedom of expression, with kwaito music emerging as the vehicle to express the realities and aspirations of young black South Africans that formed part of the country s first post-apartheid generation.

Kwaito music is a richly textured and expressive urban sound that is uniquely South African. Its pulsing dance beat exhibited a mix of rhythms including the marabi sound of the 1920s, kwela from the 1950s, mbaqanga and maskandi from the hostels, the bubblegum music of the 1980s and African praise poetry. This is the kind of music we must not let fade away like other indigenous music which originated in our motherland.

We have seen music genres like umbhaqanga and disco music lose touch with music lovers when new genres like kwaito emerged. Kwaito is far from fading away; it s still appreciated by millions.

We must have museum archives where you get to learn about our own indigenous music history from kwela to kwaito to hip-hop.

In that way, future generations will be able to hear the music to recreate from our ancient sounds and come up with new genres of South African music.

Kwaito music is our pride. It represents us, it s who we are and where we come from.