New kid on the block
SMASH AFRIKA: FROM TROUBLE CHILD TO HITTING THE BIG TIME
‘I left Bloem with only R300 and the dream of being one of the DJs on YFM.’
Comfortable in his skin, Bloemfontein born and bred Afrika Similo Mdutyulwa, better known as “Smash Afrika”, is fast becoming a force that can’t be ignored in TV and radio circles.
He juggles both an evening daily radio show on one of the biggest youth-focused radio stations as well as a new interactive music show on one of the biggest channels on DStv, Mzansi Magic (channel 161), to which he owes his extroverted unconventionally loud personality.
Having grown up in predominately Sotho- and Tswana-speaking regions between Gauteng and Free State provinces, the young Xhosa boy lived a rather troublesome life which was mostly brought about by his anger towards his family dynamics. “My dad got married three times, his first wife was my biological mother. They got divorced, he married again and later divorced my first stepmother and later married my second stepmom.
“I call her Mom because she is the one woman who took time to give me that motherly affection which I longed for as a child.” Pleased to have been the perfect son to his now late stepmom, the cheerful Mdutyulwa expressed how growing up he developed a rebellious character.
A rebel without a cause, Mdutyulwa figwhich found himself as part of the high school cricket team, supported by his Mom. It was there where the name Smash was coined. After matric, he hoped to study drama. However, his father wouldn’t have it. “We agreed that I would take a gap year while I ured my life out, meant I would move to Johannesburg.
“Sadly, things didn’t go as I had planned.”
Determined to crack into the entertainment industry, Mdutyulwa helped his father in the family business and joined the campus radio station. Within a short while, Smash Afrika had made waves over campus and surrounding areas.
Eager to start over, Mdutyulwa bummed a lift with a friend to the city of lights with nothing more than R300 to his name. For the first months, he found himself moving from couch to floor as he hopped around his friends until eventually settling in with his then girlfriend. While juggling a job in a retail store in Rosebank and shadowing Nicole Da Silva, who connected him with Voice of Wits programmes manager Michael, the young man managed to land the graveyard slot. Fast forward to 2017 and Mdutyulwa has landed himself his first official job on live television, on Mzansi Magic’s Massive Music lifestyle show alongside Lalla Hirayama every Friday evening.
All I wanted to do was to become an actor.