Sipho "Hotstix" Mabuse (born in Johannesburg, 2 November 1951) is a South African singer. Mabuse grew up in Soweto. His mother was Zulu and his father was Tswana. Sipho and his band used to be managed by Solly Nkuta, After dropping out of school in the 1960s, Mabuse got his start in the Afro-soul group the Beaters in the mid-1970s. After a successful tour of Zimbabwe they changed the group's name to Harari, an afrosoul band led by Mabuse. When they returned to their homeland in South Africa they began to draw almost exclusively on American-style funk, soul, and pop music, sung in Zulu and Sotho as well as English. He has also recorded and produced for, amongst others, Miriam Makeba, Hugh Masekela, Ray Phiri and Sibongile Khumalo. Mabuse is responsible for "Burn Out" in the early 1980s which sold over 500,000 copies, and the giant (Disco Shangaan) hit of the late 1980s, "Jive Soweto". His daughter is the singer Mpho Skeef. Mabuse returned to school at the age of 60, completing his matric (grade 12) in 2012 at Peter Lengene Community Learning Centre. He stated that he intended to continue on to college and study anthropology. President Jacob Zuma praised him for giving "inspiration to all of us by showing us that one is never too old for education". Allegations of unlawful enrichment at SAMRO In 2019 the Southern African Music Rights Organisation (SAMRO) sued Mabuse for unlawful enrichment. According to the court case, Mabuse and a number of other members of the leadership of SAMRO overpaid themselves by more than R1.6 Million rand. Mabuse himself was irregularly overpaid by R171 000. SAMRO would later become the centre of a scandal regarding the underpayment of royalties to artists, much of this taking place during Mabuse's time working for the organisation. Biography Sipho Cecil Peter Mabuse was born on 2 November 1951 in Masakeng (Shantytown), Orlando West. At the age of eight he began playing drums which he went on to master earning him the nickname “Hotstix” – a name that has become synonymous with him to this day. He then went on to become a multi-instrumentalist through learning and mastering other instruments such as the flute, piano, saxophone, kalimba, timbales and African drums. Mabuse's music career began when he formed a group called The Beaters with two of his friends Selby Ntuli and “Om” Alec Khaoli, when he was