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Kovsie student Moeketsi Ngesemane making his mark through Sesotho music

15 December 2021 | Story Nondsindiso Qwabe | Photo Supplied

Bachelor of Education third-year student, Moeketsi ‘Escalator’ Ngesemane.

By day he is a third-year Bachelor of Education student on the Qwaqwa Campus, but this young man is a Sesotho music maestro with a deep-rooted passion for traditional music and a diligent devotion to unearthing new talent and connecting more people to the cultural artistry that Sesotho music has to offer.

Moeketsi Ngesemane, better known as ‘Escalator’ in the world of music, is only 22 years old, but he has already released one solo album and featured in two more, leads a group of more than 80 traditional singers and dancers, and is responsible for a string of groups around Qwaqwa. He has made strides far beyond his age, and Ngesemane says he is only getting started. He was also instrumental in coordinating the Qwaqwa traditional groups that performed during this year’s Multilingual Mokete festival, where he also featured.

Born and bred in Qwaqwa, Ngesemane pins his love for traditional music as something that was cultivated in his childhood while singing traditional songs with his mother and brother. “My mother is a traditional healer, so Sesotho music was a big part of my upbringing. As I grew older, my brother and I would perform in town and people would give us money. I have not looked back since.”

He cemented himself as an artist and artist manager in his first year in 2009. The name ‘Escalator’ came about in an uncanny way, as he fondly recalls. “I had a friend who was afraid of escalators when he first saw it – but I wasn’t, so he named me ‘Escalator’. I hated the name until I personalised the meaning behind it. It is able to take people from one point to another and from one level to another, which is something I am passionate about doing through traditional music, so the name was fitting.”

He captivated the minds and hearts of both young and old people who want to be under his leadership, and he grooms young people as young as ten, who will also thrive and take traditional praise singing and dancing to greater heights. This, he says, helps him alleviate some responsibilities so that he can focus on his schoolwork.

Celebrating the Sesotho culture through music

Word about his music skill often spreads quickly. “Even when I am on teaching practicals at different schools, once learners find out what I do, they ask to join my group and I can’t say no. Their ages range from 7 to 21, and I know that my group will have more than 100 members before the year ends,” he said.

He often puts together music shows with his group around Qwaqwa. This, he says, he does to promote Sesotho music and art.

Ngesemane has been selected to represent the Basotho Kingdom at the Indoni Mr and Miss Cultural South Africa – an indigenous event focused on promoting South Africa’s diverse cultural heritage, taking place at the Durban ICC on 17 December. He describes this as a dream come true.

“It’s a great honour to be representing the Basotho culture. I have discovered that young people, especially, have neglected their cultural roots and often look down on traditional music and regalia. I’ve made it my personal aim to promote and uphold the Sesotho culture through praise singing and dancing.”

You can vote for Ngesemane by SMS’ing ‘Indoni Mr Sotho’ to 33616.

News Archive

Central SRC constitution for UFS approved by Council

2005-07-20

University of the Free State Fact Sheet

1. The Council of the University of the Free State (UFS) on 10 June 2005 unanimously approved the establishment of a Central Student Representative Council (CSRC) to constitute a legitimate basis for the democratic participation of students of all three of its campuses in the governance of the university.

2. In a major breakthrough and transformation step for student governance, the Central SRC will include representatives of the main campus in Bloemfontein, the Vista Bloemfontein campus and the Qwaqwa campus of the UFS.

3. The need to establish the Central SRC follows the incorporation of the Qwaqwa campus into the UFS in January 2003 and the incorporation of the Vista campus in Bloemfontein into the UFS in January 2004.

4. The constitution of the Central SRC is the outcome of a consensus reached during a lengthy process of negotiation between the SRCs of the three UFS campuses, indirectly involving diverse student formations such as Sasco, ANCYL, YCL, Pasma, SASO, SADESMO, AZASCO, SCO, HEREXVII, KovsieAlliance, ACDP, etc. Independent constitutional and political experts facilitated key parts of the negotiation process.

5. In this process, the UFS management went out of its way to ensure the participation of all student formations, especially Sasco and the ANC Youth League, as well as the duly elected SRC officials of the three campuses.

6. With the establishment of a Central SRC, the UFS has adopted a federal student governance model whereby the CSRC is the highest representative student body on matters of common concern for all students. The three campuses of the UFS will retain SRC structures for each campus with powers and responsibilities for matters affecting the particular campus.

7. The central SRC will have 12 members made up of delegates of the different campus SRCs, including the presidents of these three SRCs. In total, the main campus will have 5 representatives, the Qwaqwa campus will have 4 representatives and the Vista campus will have 3 representatives. This ratio ensures a strong voice for the smaller campuses in the central SRC.

8. This arrangement will be reviewed after a year to make allowance for the phasing out of undergraduate (pipeline) students at the Vista campus, as was agreed in the negotiations preceding the incorporation of that campus into the UFS.

9. From these 12 members a central SRC president will be chosen on a quarterly basis to represent the general student body at Executive Management, Senate and Council.

10. The historic official inauguration of the first Central SRC is scheduled to take place in early August 2005.

11. This event, like the adoption of a broadly negotiated new constitution for the main campus SRC, represents a breakthrough in that all three campus SRCs delegations and all relevant student organizations have been part of the process and have accepted the outcome of the process.

20 July 2005

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