Zinhle Serves Flames

The DJ, entrepreneur, businesswoman and mother is here to remind you she can have it all, and she has no intention of slowing down. Oh, and by the way, she’s not here for a pit y par ty – she’s here’s to f*ck it up, so turn up the volume

- Jaime Waddington

It’s 2.15pm on a Wednesday afternoon and we are sitting in the restaurant at one of Mauritius’s most luxurious, eco-friendly and Instagrammable resorts, SALT of Palmar. Ntombezinhle Jiyane, popularly known as DJ Zinhle, sits across from me, wearing a royal-blue bikini with black denim shorts and Fendi shades.

She sips on her vodka and lemonade, and leans back in her chair. Her daughter Kairo is playing in the pool with her Disney’s Frozen water wings on. Lynn Forbes, AKA’s mom, grandmom (or ‘glammy’) to Kairo, and a supportive motherin-law-type figure to Zinhle, is sitting on a pool lounger watching her granddaughter, who has been in the pool for almost an hour. The fouryear-old is sloshing about and laughing in the water. She looks happy and at times I catch her looking over at her mother adoringly.

Zinhle is a household name on the South African music scene. She entered the business in 2004 and kicked off her career with her first big gig as the resident DJ for local music and dance TV show Jika Majika in 2006. ‘This year, I celebrate 15 years of DJ Zinhle,’ she says.

When thinking about who she was during the years of Jika Majika, she struggles to find the words. She was very different to the woman she is today. She was still working as a brand manager for SAB, deejaying on the side and was very dependent on her brother Zak, who taught her how to DJ. ‘I was young and ignorant to a certain level,’ she says. ‘I was very safe when making decisions.’ By safe, she’s referring to the fact that she was too scared to quit her corporate job to DJ full-time. ‘I didn’t think I could make a career out of this. I didn’t realise how far this opportunity could take me.’