Veteran DJ wants to help addicts’ moms
HAVING kept the feet of nearly five decades of partygoers moving, legendary Port Elizabeth disc jockey “Mr Shakes” wants to spend the next decade helping mothers of drug-addled children.
Speaking on the eve of the second instalment of his farewell tour last week, Achmat Shakeer Johnson, 69, said he planned to start a support group centre for mothers of children addicted to drugs.
He said it was the mothers who suffered the most when their child was drug dependent, due to the constant worrying and heartache
Johnson plans to open several of these groups across the northern areas, saying the problem was not isolated to a specific area.
The founder of the Bewareness Campaign, a programme spreading his anti-drug and safe-sex message, Johnson said mothers were in need of a centre where they could go to talk about their misery.
“Who is taking care of the mothers when they are worrying about their children? When was the last time someone made them a cup of tea or just sat down to have a chat?
“The support group will do that, we will be there to aid them, give them strength to overcome any hardships,” Johnson said.
He hopes to have the first centre running by the end of the year -- at his home in St Adams Drive, Gelvandale.
“We need to teach our children about the dangers that could lie ahead of them at an early age, so as to prepare them to hopefully make the right decisions in life,” an emotional Johnson said. The popular former nightclub owner said there were occasions when he had played at shows for whites only.
Although he had been allowed to do so, he said he had always been nervous that something would happen.
“When I DJ for the youth today, all I see is sadness, the [youth] are giving up on themselves. These drugs are stealing our children, and the worst of them all is tik.
“I will take the nervousness over the sadness any day.
“I can’t bear to see what the tik is doing to our children,” Johnson said.
With a career spanning more than 47 years, Johnson has appeal both locally and across the country, for his charismatic and motivational on-stage presence.
He said his final tour would be a “thank you to Port Elizabeth for 40-plus wonderful years in entertainment”.
A documentary has been produced about his life and anti-drug campaign.
Sharing a memory, Johnson recalled coming last at a DJ competition in Johannesburg almost 33 years ago.
“I came last in that competition, but it was that day I realised the best thing was to be myself, because they might not have seen it, but PE already knew,” a value he now looks to pass on to the younger generation.
Johnson’s tour diary is jam-packed with shows across the country, and in Namibia and Angola.
He said proceeds from shows would go into funding his centre.
Diagnosed with colon cancer in 1995, he credits his strong faith in God and the unwavering support of his wife, Ursula, 60, for overcoming the illness, and for the success of his career.