Blackmotion, a lighting, audio visual and rental company, are the first in South Africa to purchase 16 Robin 300 Plus LED Wash fixtures as well as in 12 Clay Paky Mythos and recently 8 Robin Spikies. But this story has little to do with the fixtures, you’ll see, and more to do about Kagiso Moima-Wa-Masemene, founder of Blackmotion and humanitarian through and through.
While the Spikies were used on Raw Silk, a fashion reality television series aired on SABC, the Robin 300 Plus LED Wash and Mythos fixtures are being used for Fanbase Season six and numerous other projects. “The Spikies have added a different dimension to our television lighting styles because of the fixtures capabilities and colour patterns and we’re quite excited about that,” said Kagiso. “The Robin 300 Plus LED Fixtures and Mythos will add a touch of class and punch to the popular South African Game Show, Fanbase.”
Blackmotion has three market segments, televisions lighting, events and dry hire. “The business is doing very well. We’ve managed to do better than last year already and we’ve grown 80% in revenue so we are quite happy with that,” he said.
Kagiso Moima-Wa-Masemene
It’s been eleven years since Blackmotion was established, but neither time nor success has changed Kagiso “How you see me now and when you see me on the streets or in Mpumalanga or in boardrooms, this is who I am,” he shares. “I cannot pretend to be someone else because that has an expiry date at some point, so remaining authentic, remaining humble, remaining kind to your fellow man is important to me. That is the core belief system that has made us who we are as Blackmotion. We’ve managed to do amazing things in South Africa and in the SADC regions. We are now recognised outside of South Africa as one of the talented and professional companies to deal with. This may sound cliché and I could be challenged on plagiarism, but it’s all about the people to me. We’ve been given this life, we’re not going to have it again and what is important is what are we going to do about today because tomorrow is not guaranteed for anybody, so what can I do to make your life better?”
He takes his mandate to ‘be the change’ seriously. “We face so many challenges in South Africa and we know what the challenges are. So what is important to me is to remember that I was brought here to do something and I need to find out what that is. Every single day is a process in discovering that and I think I’m getting closer and closer. I can’t define it and say okay, my purpose is this or that because it changes every day. I meet people who lack in some ways and I get passionate about that.”
Helping a girl child
Currently, Kagiso is running a campaign where he is asking all his friends to assist him in buying as many sanitary towels as possible for young girls who don’t have. “It’s amazing how we take things for granted,” he says. “Some young women from disadvantaged families miss 60 days of school a year when it’s their menstrual cycle. When you asked me what I’m passionate about, my passion changes every day but I would love to help as many people as I can. Hence now, I realised that I need help from my friends, who have influence, who have the money to assist me. Imagine having young girls who don’t have to worry about sanitary towels. It’s amazing how South Africa works. As much as I love the South Africa Government, sometimes I question their rationale because I don’t understand how we’ll have condoms for free, and now we have flavoured condoms, but our young girls don’t have sanitary towels and it’s such a basic, basic human right.
“Look what’s happening in South Africa, there are big strikes about Fees must Fall and it has to do with education. We’re fighting about something that is far-fetched for someone in the township whose household income is zero. Look at the Data must Fall campaign and we forget that for you to get to university you need to pass your matric first of all. But what happens if you’ve missed so many classes due to menstruation? Are you even going to get to tertiary level?”
Water Park initiative
A separate project saw Kagiso build the Kagiso Water Park. “I went back to the township where I was born and realised that as a young man I wished for a place where I could go and burn energy. Three years ago we started building the Kagiso Water Park,” he said. It has also added job creation. “We have a 63.4% of unemployment in my community so I thought, hey, what can I do to assist people to at least provide them with a minimum salary. There’s a constant reminder that this life is not about me and what I can achieve. It’s amazing how lighting has been such a great thing to do because it allows me to assist where I can, as little as I can. And I have great friends who assist in every effort to make sure that we can do something.”
Kagiso is also part of an initiative called the Kagiso Education Foundation. Seminars like Zithande Women Empowerment are hosted to give young women career guidance and to explain issues they may face in the future. “Some young women don’t even know what they want to do because they’re not exposed to the different careers out there. For a poverty stricken community, that becomes the norm. There’s more to life than that. Kagiso Education Foundation empowers women. We also host a leadership dialogue meeting where both young men and women get together with a panel of successful people to talk about issues that will bring solutions to the community. The aim is to encourage people not to leave the community but to establish initiatives that can empower them. It’s the familiar story of teaching someone to fish.” There are also events like spelling Bee competitions, choir festivals and the Women’s March In Prayer. “I believe if I could go back in time and be 13 years old again, these initiatives would have stimulated my mind immensely. These initiatives will bring change and transform our community. I take every cent that I make and try to give back.”
Agent of change
Who are you and why are you here? These are two questions Kagiso asks himself every morning. “So you want to tell me the ‘why am I here’ is to become the most wealthiest man in South Africa?” he says. “No, I don’t want to be wealthy and struggle with people stealing my things. But what if we are here to empower the whole community? That is why you will see so many students without any formal education coming to Blackmotion where I teach them about lighting or what I know. We currently have a lady named Makhosazani Vilikazi who is at the SABC running the news department. She came to Blackmotion without formal education and was someone big corporates would have overlooked because of her educational background. She worked at Blackmotion for about 6 months where we taught her about lighting and she now works for the SABC. She’s running with it, the work is something she grew to love and which she is now passionate about. She has a son and she can now take care of him.
At Fanbase, Blessing Vilakazi and Musa Mthwethwa from Blackmotion with artist Sjava (centre)
“For me, it’s a blessing to be in an industry that supports me,” says Kagiso. “Duncan Riley from DWR Distribution has been instrumental in my journey, and again, Mike Jones from MJ Event Gear-He’s a gentle giant you know. This huge man who has such a great heart. Honestly, I call Mike, I abuse him sometimes and we fight over prices and we fight over budgets but he always comes through. If you look at the product of every event or television show that Blackmotion has worked on, it just points out to how many people have contributed to the success of it, so it’s not about me. So, that answers the question, ‘who am I?’ You know, I’m a combination of everyone else, I’m born of the human race, not a demographic. With the whole demographic of people, I relate. I can go to the township or to the poshest place in South Africa and I can still relate because I’m myself. I’m selling my story, a young boy from Siyabuswa and I’m not ashamed of that. You know, Siyabuswa is not a suburb, it’s a township, such an ordinary place. But the talent and the opportunities I’ve been given enabled me to get into the president’s house, enabled me to get into the most upper echelons of society and I can still relate and I can still tell my story and they’ll relate. I don’t have to be this eloquent young man, I just have to be myself and work on proving myself. That is the story of Blackmotion.
“I say this to myself when I’m facing what could be challenges in my life. I say faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things unseen. If I stick to that it does not matter how difficult a situation may be. I know that I have faith in God and having faith in God, I know that faith is the substance of things hoped for. Anything that I hope for. I know that there’s evidence of it… I mean from zero lights to over R10 million of inventory, who would have thought? And this is from a young boy from Siyabuswa, who was not bankable at the time – God will bring people in your life who will take you far. I am Kagiso Moima Wa Masemene.Thank you.
