Justin Zulu has always loved music. But on a single evening, with a bread tag as a pick in his hand, all alone with a guitar in his room at LIV Village, he realised this was more than just a hobby – it was his passion. And 8 years later, Justin’s strings are still being strummed.
“You can take the guitar, but only for tonight, okay?”
On one regular evening at LIV Durban, a volunteer, Freddie, handed his guitar over to 12-year-old Justin Zulu for the first time. What Freddie thought would be an evening of musical experimentation, was actually the beginning of a deep love for music and a career in the music industry for Justin.
“I didn’t sleep that night, I just played,” says Justin, smiling. “That’s when I fell in love with guitar.”
Hear him before you see him
Justin arrived at LIV Village when he was 10 years old with his biological brother and sister. “I was a tough kid,” says Justin, who had previously stayed at a different children’s home. Justin was rebellious at first, he says, but this wasn’t because LIV wasn’t a good place to be, but because it was his first time living in a proper family setting.
“I used to call my mom ‘auntie’,” Justin says, explaining that it was difficult to start calling his new mother ‘mom’ from the beginning. “But LIV is very family orientated, which is something it does well,” he says.
Along with his biological siblings, Justin had three other children living in the house with him that he later “adopted as [his] own brothers and sisters”, he says. “It took a while to get used to, but when you do, it’s like your proper family, you know,” Justin says, explaining that he still misses his LIV family today.
“You’d hear Justin before you saw him,” says Jonathan McCririe, who leads LIV Durban with his wife, Carita. He would be found on a hillside, plucking away at the guitar with a plastic bread tag from a bread packet and teaching himself to play, he says. “He did it so often that we noticed his skills were really developing.”
It was during his time at LIV Durban that Justin realised his passion for music didn’t need to remain a passion – it could become a career too. “The moms were super encouraging with this whole music thing. They gave us wisdom every time they looked after us,” Justin says, something he only truly appreciated as he got older.
“These moms on the village are loving six children, with six different pasts, as their own,” he says. Justin’s mom at LIV Durban, Mom Kitty, passed away in 2019, when he was about to begin his first year of university. Justin is now in his fourth year of studying music at the University of Pretoria (UP).
‘So many small miracles’
When Justin was still about 12 years old, Gibby, a staff member at LIV Durban at the time, raised him up to play in the worship band. “We were just kids, hey, it was very humble of him to do that – I don’t know if I would let a 12-year-old child play with me now!” he says.
Justin was also able to sing with the LIV choir and go on multiple tours with them, which he is very grateful for, he says. “He was really inspired by music, but is also a very gifted sportsman and athlete,” says Jonathan. “He was always a genuine pleasure, and the quality of relationship with him is very high, watching him grow from when he was about 10 years old until now,” he says.
“My story could have gone left or right so easily,” Justin says, “but there have been so many small miracles that have happened. I’ve got proof of God’s hand over my life, and I’m very thankful – how can I not be?” he says.
Although Justin did not grow up with a biological father, that role was played by multiple father figures on the village, he says. “Because of them, I don’t feel like I have a lack in that area,” he says.
One of those father figures was Tich Smith, co-founder of LIV Village with his wife, Joan. “When I left LIV, without knowing it, I had a spirit of self-entitlement” after experiencing love and protection on the village, Justin says. “But Tich sat me down one day and explained that I couldn’t just expect that of people” he says.
“There are so many people that have wisdom to share,” he says.
Bridging the gap
When Justin left the village for the first time at 18 years old, he stayed at Tich and Joan’s house outside the village for a year, while he completed an internship at Grace Family Church. “You start questioning a lot of things for the first time. I couldn’t even worship because I was overthinking things,” he says.
After wrestling with his faith outside of LIV Durban, Justin had a revelation of the goodness of God in his life. It needs to be a personal decision at the end of the day, he explains.
The following year, Justin decided that he wanted to pursue music further and study in Pretoria. “Mkulu [Tich] organised for me to stay with Rory Dyer, the pastor of 3Ci church in Pretoria, for a week. I needed a miracle, because res hadn’t accepted me and I needed a bursary,” he says.
“I led worship at Rory’s church for the first time, and I met a lady there who had heard Rory speak about my story,” he says. Justin didn’t even have the money for registration. So it could only have been God working in his life when this lady said to him, “I can speed up your process, give me your National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) number. I’m in charge of bursaries at UP.”
Within the next few days, Justin was registered and received his NSFAS bursary.
Sitting in the pews of the church service that day was also the house father of one of the residences at UP. “Through him, I also got a spot at res,” Justin says. “I still get goosebumps thinking about it.”
Justin, now in his fourth year of university, still lives in this residence, and has recently been joined by his brother, Junior, who lives next door and also studies music production.
“We used to have a band called Kingdom Boys, which we changed to Generation 246, and performed for nothing at the Litchi Orchard Market,” he says.
Today, Justin has played at multiple restaurants, markets and events, and has released his own song, ‘Ngizokuthanda’.
“I want to do more shows and festivals where I am the artist, I’m not just playing background music,” he says. “I want to grow!”
Bridging the gap between life at LIV Durban, as a place of refuge and safety, to ‘real life’ is a real challenge, says Jonathan. “But Justin is the second one of our kids to buy a car, based on the money he was able to save from his gigs – he’s been outstanding,” says Jonathan.
Looking back, Justin is grateful for the facilities that were made available to him that sparked his passion for music while he was at LIV Durban, he says. “You can only practice and fall in love with something if facilities are available,” he says.
“One day, I’d love to give back to the village in some way,” Justin says. “I want to be in a position where I can help my siblings one day too,” he adds.
“Justin is someone we deeply love, respect and admire. He’s shown humility, perseverance and hard work, all of which are needed outside of the village to make life work,” says Jonathan.
“I’ve learnt a lot of my values at LIV. And as much as it’s an organisation, it’s also my home,” Justin says.
