Beating the odds with gospel gift

[caption id="attachment_101821" align="aligncenter" width="443"] SINGING MISSION: Ozayo Ndamase hopes to spiritually heal people with his music. Picture: FREDLIN ADRIAAN[/caption]

Disabled singer Ozayo records first album

GROWING up in the dusty village of Nyandeni outside Mthatha, Ozayo Ndamase, 26, was often called names.

Born with an array of disabilities – deformed feet, a speech problem and near blindness – the youngster was mercilessly mocked.

But Ndamase was also born with a great gift – a singing voice which captured the attention of music producer Sizwe Zako.

Zako heard him sing at a gospel competition in Mthatha in April this year.

He signed Ndamase to his label, Sizwe Zako Productions, and on Monday Ndamase was in the Bay promoting his new gospel album, Ndicele Ntonye (All I Ask Is One Thing).

The shy, husky-voiced, young man said while life had not been easy, God had been with him every step of the way.

“I had nine siblings and I was the eighth-born at home. I could not go to school because of my condition. It always pained me to see other kids going to school while I would be sitting in a wheelchair doing nothing.”

Ndamase said the trials he had suffered through had brought him closer to God.

“I asked Him to make me like other kids.

“I wanted to be able to play street soccer just like them and run around. No one wanted to play with me and that only left me with my siblings and parents.

“Unfortunately my mother died in 2006 and things went from bad to worse as we had to fend for ourselves.”

Ndamase spent a large part of his life in the Assemblies of God church, where he prayed every day to be healed.

-Yoliswa Sobuwa