Human statues earn their keep through their art

Living statues are taking over Maponya Mall, performing and busking at a hitherto unknown level. The silver and gold painted levitating human statues wowed passing shoppers at the mall.

Shony Mokwebo and Sello Ramaifo, the duo that goes by the name of Africa Minerals, their talents to entertain people in return for funds to advance their music career. They started doing this in 2003 and have improved with time. They also do magic tricks and clowning.

Although they are doing this to raise fund, they said that they are also passionate about floating human statues. Maponya Mall has given them the space to entertain and raise funds.

They occasionally move with sudden twitching movements, but otherwise, remain perfectly still.The constant laughter and physical touching from shoppers does not bother them and they remain motionless for hours on end.

“The thing we hate most is being poked and sworn at. The little kids don’t know any better, but it is grown-ups too, the undesirables who don’t understand that this is all entertainment. They will push you over and swear at you then laugh,” said Sello Ramaifo.

Being a living statue is really not for the faint-hearted. These people also have to observe the living statue rule of never scaring their young audience and standing still, taking the abuse and not fighting back.

“To be a real professional requires focus, dedication, practice and a high level of fitness, because standing still is much harder than you’d think, sometimes we stand still until someone throws in money, however, if they don’t, we just move anyway, in order to connect with our audience,” said Shony Mokwebo.

Having been doing this for over a decade, they have been able to make a living out of it; they also said that they bought houses through this.

The drummer and DJ explained that they used this route because they wanted to build a good fan base for their music career. They will soon be releasing their first single at a time to be announced.

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