Late music legend’s legacy lives on
His well-known hit “Tsoang Tsoang Tsoang” is still a favourite song to play at weddings.
A contemporary music legend, Kori Moraba, grew up in the scenic valley of the Drakensberg and Steenkamp mountains, known as the greater Lydenburg area.
Moraba always considered Mashishing his second home, although he and his family lived in Johannesburg for part of the year. Anna Moraba, his widow, wanted to strengthen her late husband’s memory by continuing the path he created with his charitable endeavours. In an interview with Steelburger/ Lydenburg News, she said she decided to start making donations of sanitary products to several schools in Mashishing and Skhila.
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After her husband’s Covid-19-related death on January 2, 2021 at the age of 73, she started to spend more time in Mashishing.
“This is where I feel the closest to my late husband. I have been overwhelmed by the love the community of Mashishing has shown me and our family,” she said.
His first few school years were spent at Kellysville Primary School, before attending school in Meadowlands, Soweto. Moraba did not finish school, but his talent launched his professional career in the early 1970s with a local group from Tladi, Soweto. He was not only known for his Setswana music, but recorded in several African languages, and sang soulful ballads, and praise and worship music.
Marabo was a well-known recording artist and his first album, Sotho Reggae, was released in 1977. One of his most famous songs was “Victim of the system” and another well-known hit was “Tsoang Tsoang Tsoang”.
It is still a much-loved wedding song since being first recorded in the 1970s. Many South Africans cannot end their wedding celebrations without playing this song. His years in Soweto not only honed his musical talents, but cemented him as a political influencer for the rest of his life.
“I want to continue his legacy by contributing to the community. Thris is the first donation I have made, but there will be more to follow. I want to thank my children Jolina Moraba, Pauline Sejanamane, and my son, Thabiso Moraba, for continuing their father’s legacy. It has even been difficult for me these past few months to leave for a couple of weeks and visit my children in Johannesburg. I feel a strong urgency to come back to my husband’s place of birth and be in the town he saw as his true home,” Anna said.
