Samthing Soweto says his community has forgiven him for his criminal past

Musician  Samkelo "Samthing Soweto" Mdolomba may have had some run-ins with the law growing up and even served time behind behind bars but has revealed that his criminal record has officially been expunged or removed and he is now an "upstanding member of society once more."

The muso and his friends were arrested for armed robbery and he spent more than two months in jail while awaiting trial when he was younger.

Speaking to the panel of presenters on Trending SA the Akanamali hitmaker said that poverty has led to many people doing desperate things but said hope showed him there was a better way.

He paid tribute to his neighbours and community, explaining that many had forgiven him for his rebellious past.

"Most of the people have forgiven me for half the things I did as a youngster. I always remember the second, the third, and fourth chance that I got."

He said that he draws strength from the support he now gets from his community and those who have forgiven him.

"I know what type of forgiveness one can get from a community and what that means for an artist. You can draw a lot of strength from that. Knowing that your neighbours or those around you want you to win does something for you that you can't find in any book or song. Your community builds you."

Of course, it hasn't been easy to rebuild that trust and the star told  Mo Flava on The Drive With Mo Flava & Masechaba Ndlovu in January that after he came out of prison, it took him a while to convince the people around him to trust that he was changing.

He said that he knew one of the ways to prove that he was changing the direction of his life was to go back to school.

"Finally, I matriculated. It was hard but I did it. I had to memorise a lot of the words and I'm constantly spelling things wrong. Even to this day, I have a real problem with that. If you read some of the things I write, you'll probably find a lot of mistakes in there."