Dr Pat Malungani is a medical doctor, a father, a businessman and a musician of note.
It was love at first sight when the 6 year old, Pat saw a keyboard for the first time on tv and loved the way it sounded. “I asked my brother what that black and white thing is, he told me it was an ‘organ’. I fell in love with the instrument”, he says.
His primary school choir teacher layed the bricks on the foundation of his music journey. “The methods they used to teach us the notes, then the words of the songs led me to automatically grasp the concept of the notes naturally,” he says.

He grew up in a rural place where there were no facilities, no bands and no churches which played live music, and thus says he started his music journey in his head. “I had to fantasize about my involvement in music for a good 11 years until I touched a keyboard for the first time when I was 17 in varsity,” he says.
Those who know him know he is a man with a plan, now we know where it started. “My father played dinaka/tinanga and I developed a concept in my head from that,” he says. This resulted in him creating his own makeshift instrument by using some hollow reads he got from his grand-mother’s house. I played the national anthem and happy birthday and other simple songs on that,” he says. He didn’t know what to call it at that time and later on in life he realized that what he created had a name, he created pan pipes. The young Pat created an instrument without knowing it even existed, now that’s passion. “All this effort was simply because the desire was there but there were no keyboards or other musical instruments around,” he says.

He mentions his biggest highlights as a musician. This was meeting his role models and sharing stages with them. The list includes the likes of Tebs David, Benjamin Dube, Mthunzi Namba, drummers such as Kwazi Shange and Themba Masina, the late guitarist Sihle Kunene, Keke, Vicky Vilakazi, Margaret Motsage and the late Neyi Zimu. He also mentions his first live recording as a bassist with a group from Witbank called Crush where he played with the legendary drummer Rob Watson and working on Dr Tumi’s first studio album in 2012 among many others. His music journey has given him long lasting friendships and afforded him the opportunity to transfer his knowledge to other young musicians such as the songstress, Judith Nemo, Rumby Shipalane, Gladwin Mathebula and many others. He says that he believes that there is a lot that can come out from them.
Gladwin Mathebula is one of the musicians that have been greatly impacted by Dr Pat. “Dr Pat is one of the greatest musicians we have in Tzaneen,” he says. Gladwin says that in as much as Dr Pat is a medical doctor, God has used his music to bring healing to others.

His career exposed him to many gigs and stages where he says he started marveling at big set-ups and productions. He once again started fantasizing and looking at music beyond just playing an instrument. That’s how he eventually formed his sound hire and production company, Mbhetse Productions. “For me music is way to nice, broad and interesting to just play an instrument. I want to be involved is some of its aspects,” he passionately says.
With 22 years and counting in the music space, he definatley has valuable advice to share with musicians who would like to have a lasting career in music. “Have more than one stream of income. Music is tricky and seasonal. And there is a lot of corruption and as such there are no guarantees. Have a definite plan and work hard to execute it. Never limit yourself to just one aspect of music. Explore as much as you can and involve yourself,” he says.

-Dr Pat Malungani