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Bongani Ndlovu, Showbiz Correspondent 

TALENTED Afro-pop band Ngoma iNgoma are excited as they will be taking their act to South Africa for the Kwaguqa International Arts Festival that kicks off tomorrow in Mpumalanga.

The three-day festival is held annually to promote the arts in Mpumalanga province with the Bulawayo group invited to bring a diverse flare.

Ngoma Ingoma spokesperson, Blessing ‘‘Stot Bass’’ Sitotombe, said they will be performing at the Jazz & Popular Session taking place at at the Blue Room in Witbank on Thursday evening.

He said as a group, they are naturally excited to be performing in South Africa for the first time. 

“We got an invitation to perform from the festival organisers after we had sent out our music and reached out to them. Naturally, we’re thrilled as Ngoma iNgoma about this one as this will be the first time for us to perform outside the country,” said Stot Bass.

“We’ll be performing on the opening night of the festival alongside other talented South African groups Rubber Duck, Street Fresh, Musa Mashiane, Thandeka Magagula, Nqubeko Ndebele and G2G, which is amazing.”

Stot Bass, who plays the bass guitar, said the invitation to perform outside the country shows that they are doing something right.

“This shows that our music is being accepted at an international level. It’ll also push us to improve and work harder because South Africa is a competitive industry which we look up to as artistes in general,” he said.

After returning from Mzansi, Stot Bass said they have a series of performances lined up across the country. 

Ngoma iNgoma released their debut self-titled album this year at the Bulawayo Theatre and one of the songs, Amalobolo, became a crowd favourite. The group also dazzled at this year’s Bulawayo Arts Awards. This led the group to embark on a citywide tour called “Taking the Music to the People”. Through this tour, they performed at Mapiko Cocktail Bar, The Place, New Alabama and BAC Leisure.