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At a mere 20 DJ Mzakes is a beacon of inspiration to the township youth of Knysna and his reputation as an innovative house DJ is garnering fans much further afield. Mention his name in Kwanokatula on the outskirts of Plettenberg Bay or Smutsville in Sedgefield and you’re likely to get an enthusiastic response. Jakes, as his friends will call him, exudes an air of confidence far beyond the station of his young age and his sense of purpose is all the more remarkable given his circumstances.  

Mzakes Simka was born with SMA or Muscular Atrophy, a broad term describing a wide variety of degenerative muscular conditions brought on by inherited genetic disorders.  Symptoms are weakness caused by de-nervation, that is, the muscle atrophies or shrinks because it has lost the signal to contract due to loss of the innervating nerves. It largely affects his legs and therefore his mobility but he’s extremely sharp and you get no sense of his disability until be has to physically move about.

His condition became evident at 11 and a year later its effects had … — Read more »