Listen To Your Footsteps

When South African comedian and musical satirist Tats Nkonzo sits down with Kojo Baffoe, laughter becomes a way of working through generational reckonings – from fathers and family businesses to childhood characters, mental health and the country their children will inherit.
In this episode of Listen To Your Footsteps, Tats reflects on growing up as the last born in a loving but complicated family, watching his father carry responsibility and choosing which parts of that inheritance he is willing to accept. He and Kojo unpack how art, stand‑up comedy and recorded conversations become a living archive, giving their kids language and context for who their parents are and why they made certain decisions.
Together they move through stories of family businesses, neighbourhood patrols, community WhatsApp groups and the people they now recognise as people living with unspoken pain. They interrogate birth order, masculinity, duty, mental illness and the tension between African communal life and modern urban individualism – always returning to the question of what we actually pass on when we say we love our families and our country.
If you are a creative, a parent or a South African wrestling with your own generational story, this conversation will remind you that laughter is often how we touch the hardest truths and still move forward together.
Listen, share and subscribe to Listen To Your Footsteps on Spotify, YouTube and your favourite podcast app. If this episode resonates, leave a rating, write a review, and send it to someone navigating their own generational reckonings.

Recorded at Vodcasttv
#TatsNkonzo #ListenToYourFootsteps #SouthAfricanPodcast #StandUpComedy #AfricanStorytelling #GenerationalReckonings #ArtAndLegacy #Fatherhood #MentalHealth #Community #SouthAfrica

Her father owned taxis. She runs a law firm.
Emily Ntuli grew up the fourth daughter in a township in Pretoria, in a household shaped by the grit, dignity and stigma of South Africa's taxi industry. There was no professional blueprint to follow, no family member who had walked into a boardroom before her. What Emily had was a work ethic inherited from her parents, a quiet and relentless drive, and an ability to read systems — in organisations, in people and in herself.
Today she is the Chief Operations Officer of HBGSchindlers Attorneys in Johannesburg, a Non-Executive Director, a Committee Chair, an IoDSA member, and one of the most compelling voices in South Africa's legal and corporate leadership space. The distance between the taxi ranks and the C-Suite is not a gap she glosses over. It is the whole story — and in this episode, she tells it with full honesty.
This is a conversation about what it takes to move from a reception desk to a corner office, how to build HR and operational systems that actually serve the people inside them, and why the most powerful thing Emily Ntuli can do now is be visible — for her daughter, for township youth, and for every first-generation professional trying to find their footing in a world that was not designed with them in mind.
On this episode:
Growing up in a taxi-industry household and the values her parents built into her
Moving from receptionist to HR administrator and discovering her gift for people and process
How law chose her — long before she had the language to choose it back
Navigating retrenchment on both sides — as someone retrenched, and as someone who had to do it to others
Running a beauty salon as an act of entrepreneurship, survival and self-determination
Becoming a mother and how it sharpened her sense of purpose and urgency
Quiet leadership — why introversion is a strategic advantage in loud corporate environments
Building systems that protect people, not just organisations
Her vision for making South Africa's legal sector more human and more inclusive
Legacy, visibility and the open door she is determined to hold for those coming behind her
From the taxi ranks of Pretoria to the C-Suite of a Johannesburg law firm. This is Emily Ntuli's story.
Listen now and follow Listen To Your Footsteps for new episodes every week.

#EmilyNtuli #ListenToYourFootsteps #TaxiRanksToCsuite #HBGSchindlers #WomenInLeadership #COO #SouthAfricanPodcast #LegalSector #HRLeadership #BlackWomenInBusiness #TownshipToBoardroom #CareerJourney #FirstGenerationGraduate #AfricanLeadership #WomenEmpowerment #SocialMobilitySA #OperationsManagement #SystemsThinking #SouthAfricaBusiness #PodcastSA

Eddie Hatitye has spent two decades quietly building the infrastructure behind African music. From growing up in Harare with no access to instruments to leading the Music In Africa Foundation and founding the ACCES music market, he has become a key architect of how African sound is documented, funded and shared.
Kojo and Eddie unpack the African music ecosystem beyond the stage: live performance and touring, royalties and data, management as the continent’s biggest missing skill, and why civil society and independent organisations are doing so much of the heavy lifting. They discuss diversifying revenue, youth internships and what it takes to turn creative passion into a sustainable career.
Eddie also reflects on leadership, fatherhood, travel and the opportunities and risks AI brings to music makers and arts institutions. If you care about African music, creative careers or the future of the continent’s cultural economy, this episode is your starting point.

Recorded at Vodcast TV

#AfricanMusic #MusicBusiness #MusicInAfrica #CreativeEconomy #ACCESMusicMarket #AfricanCreatives #MusicManagement #LivePerformance #Royalties #ArtsFunding #CreativeCareers #AfricanSound

From teen model and Channel O presenter to SABC business news anchor and, now, advocate of the High Court of South Africa, Nzinga Qunta has lived several professional lives before forty. In this intimate conversation, she opens up about feeling like she was “performing smartness” on television and why she walked away from the newsroom to test the true limits of her mind in the notoriously gruelling Johannesburg Society of Advocates pupillage programme.
Nzinga traces a childhood spent in exile across Botswana and Zimbabwe, the shock of coming “home” to South Africa to confront race labels and class divides, and how language, Pan-African politics and Black Consciousness shaped her sense of belonging. She speaks honestly about imposter syndrome, becoming a beginner again among younger lawyers, and the quiet discipline of building a reputation through work rather than social media performance.
Along the way, we move through modelling castings and music television stages, the baptism of fire that was ANN7 and SABC live news, to international moderation gigs with presidents and CEOs, and her commitment to showing up as a fully visible Black woman—headwrap, Umbhaco fabric and all—without dimming her intellect. We also sit with motherhood, scouts, school runs and the realities of raising a daughter while fighting through one of the toughest spaces for Black women in South Africa’s legal profession.
If you have ever wondered whether it is too late to start again, whether your mind can stretch further, or how to find your place when you do not quite fit the mould, this episode is a masterclass in purposeful reinvention, humility and courage. Listen in, share it with someone who needs to hear it, and leave a review so more people can discover these stories.

#NzingaQunta #ListenToYourFootsteps #AfricanStories #BlackWomenInLaw #CareerReinvention #SouthAfricanPodcast #BusinessNewsAnchor #AfricanIdentity #JohannesburgSocietyOfAdvocates #Storytelling

In this episode, South African pianist, producer and label head Apiwe Bubu unpacks a 20-year journey from Eastern Cape school halls and Roman’s Pizza shifts to Berklee College of Music, Grammy-winning LA studios and Amapiano nights in Los Angeles. He shares how three failed Berklee auditions, immigrant hustle and a belief in persistence shaped his craft as a mix engineer, composer, DJ and founder of global music ecosystem We Want More and the AmaKinezi Vibe brand.
Apiwe reflects on turning jazz piano into a foundation for everything from TV scores and trap beats to his debut solo album, why he calls mixing the “dark art” of music making, and what it means to build home across Pretoria, Johannesburg, the Eastern Cape and LA. The conversation dives into mentorship, signing his own mentor, navigating label partnerships with Virgin, and designing systems that let African creatives thrive across continents.
If you are an emerging producer, sound engineer, artist or storyteller balancing multiple paths, this is a masterclass in craft, resilience and improvising a life that fits who you are.
Listen, follow and share this episode with a friend chasing a creative path between worlds, and leave a rating or review so more people can discover these stories.
#ApiweBubu #SouthAfricanMusic #JazzPiano #Amapiano #MusicProduction #SoundEngineering #BerkleeCollegeOfMusic #CreativeJourney #AfricanCreatives #ListenToYourFootsteps