YNOT MABINA AND MAKHI SKITS: CREATING WELLNESS WHILE TACKLING SOCIAL ISSUES USING SATTIRE AND SEPEDI.
One of the country’s well known YouTuber hailing all the way from Limpopo province, meet France Mabina Mogoboya known by his stage name Ynot Mabina. He is the founder and CEO of YNOT Casting Projects (Pty) Ltd., which is a production company well known for Makhi Skits. To date YNOT TV’s YouTube channel has over 16 800 subscribers. In this EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW with The Village Mag, France tells us about his journey and how he manages to stay relevant and most importantly using his native language Sepedi to reach the world.
The journey to self-discovery can be long, littered with hills and curves, not many have the will to travel this path, many realize after years of being in the employ of someone that they do not love what they are doing. Fortunately this is not the case for France Mabina Magoboya, he discovered that he loved the performing arts industry and being on stage at a very early age. He attributes his love for the arts to his then grade 09 Arts and Culture teacher Ms Molele, who encouraged that he and Dumisane Masukume work together to write dramas and since then he has never looked back.
While still in high school before matriculating in 2015, the former Molautsi Secondary School entered the 2014 MAQamovie competition which was a talent search competition sponsored by MAQ Washing Powder. The event was “The event was a huge success. We unearthed so much talent in South Africa. We were so impressed with all the 15 contestants, and the 10 who didn’t win will each get R5 000,” then said Jacqueline Jacobs who was the company’s Sales and Marketing Director.
Ynot Mabina was so fortunate to be amongst the event’s Top 15 finalists, this is where the bug for acting really him more especially since the judging panel comprised of the likes of Shona Ferguson, Sdumo Mtshali, Nomzamo Mbatha and Darrel Roodt just to name a few of the performing arts industry’s powerhouses. Upon completion of his matric in 2015, he later enrolled with the Northwest University where he was studying towards a degree in Political Science and International Relations. Moreover, he joined July Mthimunye’s Blood Casting Project in the same year “I must say that is where I learnt everything” said Ynot.
Many people mostly his followers on social media platforms know France as Makhi on his popular skit videos. To those who may not know what a skit video is, it is a short video with comedic scenes. Most of their videos are uploaded online on the Ynot TV YouTube channel which has over 16 800 subscribers to date. He works closely with a cast of talented locals where they tackle social ills and trends such as the recent Makhi Skirt 131 which addresses the recent riots which rippled across the Gauteng and KwaZulu Natal Provinces. The video has to date received over 24 534 views and the numbers keep going up. Their videos are watched by the young and old. When asked what is he does for a living he said, the Limpopo actor said “I’m a scriptwriter for stage plays, radio- and TV-plays. I also am an event organizer as well as TV presenting and a staunch Betway activist” joked the God fearing Mabina.
His definition of success as a young entrepreneur in the entertainment industry he said “as long as one uses their talent to have a meaningful impact on those around him and those that love and enjoy their work then that is success. To generate an income from doing what you love is an added bonus.”
The most difficult part about Makhi Skits is that the stories chosen by Mabina and his production team follow trending topics and that they shoot almost every day. He emphasized that because they work daily, he hardly ever has time to rest as he has to analyse and ensure that the right character fits and execute the script accordingly. And; also because of the low budget at their disposal, he is forced to work with locals – some do not take their work seriously as they would arrive late to the shoot, some because they grew up together or something of that sort.
There is definitely no doubt that the sky is the limit for France Mabina Magoboya and his production team and judging by the wonderful work the team has done on the Makhi Skits project. One can only see coming from this Limpopo born creators. He would like to see himself with an established production house writing and producing TV shows that would be loved all around the country in the not so distant future. One of the fans of Makhi Skits is the 16 year old Motsitli Poto from Mokopane who said “I love the fact that these guys use Sepedi on their videos, it makes me feel proud to be MoPedi, my favourite actor is Solomon, I watch their videos every day”. Pictured below are the crew members of Makhi Skit, other crew members include Navie Navie Drill, Merlon Selamolela, Phuti Kola, Melford Ngobeni and Boss e Sese.
He says he will forever be grateful to all the sponsors, past and present who worked with them to ensure their success, the likes of Dembe Drilling cc, Phoenix Transfers, Kemo Afrika, Putla Media House and Modula’s Driving School are some of the current sponsors they have on their books.
Follow him for more on all his socials: Facebook on YNOT TV and YNOT Mabina Makhi, Twitter, TikTok and Instagram