Friends raise funds for DJ’s burial

By Matšeliso Phulane

Friends of the late Tšepo ‘SoftCoffee’ Makhele have come together to raise funds for the burial of the Mafeteng-born DJ and founder of the annual Colour Festival.

Makhele died on Tuesday last week, reportedly from spinal cord injuries he sustained in a road accident last year.

According to his friend and business associate Liteboho Maanela, the deceased’s family approached his childhood friend Sam ‘Chords’ Ramosoeu and informed him they were in financial duress.

In an interview with theReporter this week, Maanela said he met SoftCoffee when they were both studying nursing at National University of Lesotho.

Besides that, they both connected when they collaborated to host an event dubbed ‘The Ice Cold Experience’.

He described SoftCoffee as a jolly person and a hard worker who left nothing to chance when it came to getting things done.

“Apart from that, he was a great leader and had so many friends. In a nutshell, he was a people’s person,” Maanela said.

He further explained that due to SoftCoffee’s brand which had already grown he was now a well-connected person everywhere he went. He was brilliant and it shows that the future was bright ahead of him.

The Coulour Festival did not go ahead in 2023 due to lack of funds and logistical challenges, but Maanela insisted it was SoftCoffee’s dream for the event to be staged.

“SoftCoffee’s death is heartbreaking and a dream breaker. At the moment I am at my wits’ end; I do not know whether to delete the page (ColourFestival) or continue with the event.

“Honestly, he left me directionless. As his manager, I still had to learn a lot from him when it comes to the entertainment industry because he was brilliant and full of innovative ideas. I am really nothing without him,” Maanela lamented.

In another interview, DJ and producer Samuel Ramosoeu said he grew up together with SoftCoffee and they did a lot of things which he described as ‘wild’.

The two were close because of their common interests, and Ramosoeu said they were wild because they would do whatever they had planned without any fear.

Explaining how the deceased earned his nickname, the producer said: “SoftCofee was so obsessed with deejaying and he idolised world-famous DJ Black Coffee a lot much. He was initially known known as just ‘Soft’, a name he got as a football player in primary school. As he started deejaying he decided to call himself SoftCoffee which derives from ‘Soft’ and ‘Black Coffee’.

“I am still shocked and trying to come to terms with the fact that he is gone. At the same time, he was suffering due to spinal cord malfunction and couldn’t walk. It was heart-wrenching for a young person like him to be going through what he was. I always felt helpless every time I went to see him.

“Right now, we are having a huge financial problem as we prepare to lay him to rest, as his resources were drained by medical expenses.”

According to Chords, people who would like to help with SoftCoffee’s burial expenses can send their contributions via Ecocash to: +266 62 309539 (Ramotete Sehobai) or Mpesa to +266 59650466 (Mamotantsi Sehobai).