‘New Brizzy’ father-figure has high hopes for the youth
From booking the first concert tours of late pop juggernaut Brenda Fassie and Africa’s queen of gospel Dr Rebecca Malope, music promoter and celebrated storyteller Mike Pantsi is pinning his success on New Brighton.
When the 1.81m tall Pantsi walks through the streets of the township, residents greet him as if he were the mayor.
“They see me as New Brizzy’s father-figure,” Pantsi said during a sit-down interview at the Mendi Arts Centre.
“New Brizzy is my pride and joy, I live for the place and its people.”
New Brizzy, according to Pantsi, is the nickname of New Brighton, a suburb that bears the hallmarks of the struggle against apartheid.
Historians consider 1903 to be the official founding year of New Brighton which will soon commemorate 120 years of existence.
The 67-year-old said while working as a switchboard operator at Livingstone Hospital in 1977, a year after the Soweto uprising, he got the opportunity to rub shoulders with some “high-profile businessmen and influential people”.
“That’s when my career as a music promoter kicked off,” Pantsi said.
Pantsi said the first show he organised was when the nurses of the hospital decided to participate in a play.
His road to success was shortly thereafter riddled with proverbial potholes when his house burned down.
“It burned down due to student unrests; I had to start over, from scratch, it had a huge emotional and financial impact on me ... the apartheid police attacked me, saying I burned my house deliberately, which is not true.”
In a bid to rejuvenate his dream, Pantsi picked up the pieces and tried again. “I then participated in local films and theatre plays for smallanyana actors. I did this for a couple of months until I met people of my ilk, those also interested in music,” he said.
“I also met the man who introduced me to the world of entertainment, Welcome Duru.”
Duru, who died in Gqeberha in 2009, served as dramatist, screen actor, boxing promoter, politician, singer and composer throughout his life.
“We used to call him ‘Bra Wel’ and he allowed me to be a boxing match announcer and music promoter.”
Pantsi said that is when he got to work with Fassie, also known as the Black Madonna, and Malope.
Pantsi, whose wife and son died in 2010, said he had hope for the youth of New Brighton.
“I always say to the youth of New Brizzy to stay out of trouble and to get educated,” Pantsi said.