There’s a new voice in South African music who calls herself a free thinker, a storyteller, a disruptor, and a community builder. She’s GHXST Bunny.

GHXST Bunny (born Mbasa Masiza) is also a lover of music, of good stories, of South African history, and of finding ways for African creatives to own their work. What started in a small town has grown into DJ sets, events, and platforms that put other people first.

Speaking to The Insight Co, GHXST reflected on where it all started. Growing up in Butterworth (Gcuwa), says she was closed off from a lot of what was happening outside the town. That made her naive, playful, and a late bloomer.

“I get to be naive in how I dream, and playful with what and how I create,” she said.

That playfulness followed her to UJ. It was there, and in the Soweto nightlife, that she fell in love with amapiano. So much so that she picked up DJing.

She didn’t plan to become a DJ. She had already been sharing her taste through a music and playlist blog called MUSICHITSTHEGROOVE. DJing became another way to put music in front of people, whether they were strangers or people she loved.

“I didn’t choose DJing as a career, it sort of just chose me,” she said.

She was unemployed at the time and had nothing else to do. After a chat with her sister she decided to focus on it. The rest, she says, is history.

She applied to the TDP because she needed to get comfortable behind the decks. Gigs made her nervous and she wanted to log the hours and get used to the equipment.

What she got was more than practice. In six months she picked up music production basics and was introduced to events management, something that had always interested her.

“Getting 6 months to lock into my creativity, and GHXST Bunny is what came out of those 6 months,” she said.

Her sound is still developing, but at the moment it’s amapiano, deephouse, 3-step, afrohouse and house. She says producers aren’t keeping those genres separate anymore.

“People like to pit these sounds against each other but if you look at the music that is coming out now, the producers are working together, they are rewriting the DNA of all these sounds,” she said. “As a lover of the music and an experimenter, how can one not blend all of this together?”

Every performance means something, but there’s one that stands out.

“Something about playing at Slow Cooked Sundays man, I don’t know what it is, but it moves me every time,” she said.

Sitback And Enjoy Productions is the umbrella for everything she does. That includes GHXST Bunny, PrettyGirlsLikeEvents, SPOKOFONTEIN and Spoko Cafe.

The goal is simple, freedom and ownership of her work. PrettyGirlsLike started because she kept being the only womxn on lineups in Cape Town. She knew plenty of womxn who were capable, so she started her own parties and flipped the script with majority womxn lineups.

PrettyGirlsLikeFilm came from her love of storytelling and wanting to meet more womxn in film. She had acted before but didn’t know how to break in, so she figured she’d bring the industry to her.

PrettyGirlsLikeEvents brings it all together. It’s a platform that brings womxn in entertainment together to celebrate and upskill.

The Beyond North South programme is a 6-month exchange through Bridges For Music. She interns at TVIBIT and works different festivals in and around Tromsø, then brings those lessons home.

“It’s a once in a lifetime kind of experience,” she said. “It definitely has its challenges which has allowed me to grow, but it has also been affirming in so many ways and has reminded me to dream bigger and beyond South Africa.”

She’s keeping the next steps close for now, “Well to know more about my future plans you would have to follow me along my journey like everyone else,” she said.

First up: PrettyGirlsLikeFilm on 30 September 2026 at the Gorgeous George Hotel. Tickets are available on quicket.co.za/events/389574-prettygirlslikefil.

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