Unsung Hero: Sibusiso Mauze

Sibusiso (S’bu) Mauze became a disciple of Jesus 18 years, and joined the worship team in the North-west Region of the Joburg church towards the end of 2004. He shares what it takes for him (and other teams around our fellowship of churches) to put together worship songs for the virtual services:

Did you ever think you’d face a challenge such as last year because of the Covid-19 pandemic? 

Whilst virtual worship in 2020 started out as an adventure, which turned out to be a challenge, I never envisaged this type of scenario ever.

How difficult has it been to put together songs during the pandemic?

Putting songs together have been difficult for a few reasons. One major one was not being sure what team is available to take part. That means song choices became a challenge because not all the team members have the technological know-how to record. Sometimes songs have to be redone, and that frustrates everyone. I found it easier if I did the whole song on my own or with my family, because there was more control, but that’s not sustainable and looks exclusive. 

Another problem is when singing alone, you cannot align yourself with the rest of your team, and in the end, that becomes a challenge for the sound editor.

What does the sound editor’s work involve?

As the person who does the audio and video edit, I have to wait for people to send me back their files, and that takes long, sometimes too long. After receiving them, the audio edit is first, and then video. Synchronising all the videos is sometimes hard, and one makes tough decisions. The longest a song has taken was four days — from receiving first input to sending out for adding on a service video. Some didn’t make it there because there wasn’t enough usable footage. If I were to count songs where I had to originate the backing track, it’s about a week per song.

What is the biggest challenge in teaching church hymns in the vernacular?

The challenge of teaching venac songs, especially in Gauteng, is the number of languages we have versus the number of speakers in the worship team. We cannot be singing two languages only, so worship leaders have to first learn the song, understand it and present it with feeling. This can be hard if you’re worried about saying the words wrong, then get feedback from the congregation, who have the same challenges. If we focused on fewer languages, it would help, but we currently can’t do that, so we keep going.

Do you have a favourite worship song?

I enjoy worship, and although favourites change all the time, I’d have to say I enjoy leading ‘Sidumisa Wena Nkosi / Jerusalema ikhaya lami’.

We’ve all experienced how hard it is to sing together during a live online meeting —*chuckle*— and we appreciate the hard work put in by the worship teams in all our churches with all our hearts. You guys and gals rock!