Soul music group Soul Kulture has mesmerised South Africa with their touching sounds but have not been impressive in their school work.


The Ngelinyi'langa hitmakers failed Grade 11 while at school in Khayelitsha in Cape Town last year.

Alefetse Manamathela, 20, and Msekeli Velaphi, 21, are now repeating the grade at Northwood College - a private school in Pretoria.

Their manager, Lionel Jamela, said the youngsters were overwhelmed by fame last year, hence they failed.

"I think fame got into their heads, which is understandable because they are still young. We made sure they had enough opportunity to prepare for the exams. We never let their music careers interfere with school work," he said.

He told Sunday World that he never let them do gigs during the week so that they could focus on their school work.

"In December we did not take any gigs. Maybe they were worried because they were due to go to initiation school after the exams," he said.

Jamela said they were disappointed when they failed and it was then decided to move them to Gauteng in order to monitor them closely.

"They admitted that they were overwhelmed but have promised to pick up their socks," Jamela said.

In an interview with Sunday World last year, they admitted that they were getting a lot of attention within the Khayelitsha community where they stayed.

Manamathela said people were stopping them in the streets to ask for autographs and to take pictures.

The pair said they were behind with their school work because at one stage they had to drop out because of financial constraints. "When we dropped out we devoted our time to music and making money to provide for our families by busking at the taxi rank," said Velaphi.

The two were discovered by Jamela at a taxi rank in Cape Town singing to commuters.

Velaphi said he wants to be an actor or sound engineer while Manamathela wants to study media.

They were nominated for the Metro FM Awards in the best new artists category.