He is an arts and culture coach and has been based at Ned Doman High School in Athlone for over five years.

The youngest of his parents’ blended family of 17 children, Johnson grew up in Manenberg and attended Talfalah Primary and Manenberg High schools. While there was a guitar in the house, he didn’t take much interest in it.

“For me, guitar playing was boring because I had only seen older people playing the strumming style.”

This view changed when, at the age of 20, a friend showed him some chords.

“I got it right immediately and he said I should join the music classes at the Manenberg People’s Centre.”

This is where Johnson saw a different style of playing.

“My guitar teacher Lesley Javan showed me the finger style. Then I took deep into guitar playing.”

The song he wanted to learn was Cavatina, which featured in a segment of the Tony Hart show being aired on television during the early 1980’s.

“I often watched that programme just for the music. I asked my guitar teacher and he said I was still a beginner to learn that song but I insisted. It took me about eight months of practice, practice, practice, and I finally got it right.”

Before playing guitar, Johnson was a member of the Manenberg Drama Group under the guidance of Charlton George and performed as an actor in and around his community.

“Fortunately or unfortunately, my role models for acting were Eddie Murphy and Bill Cosby so I wanted to become a comedian.”

He recalls a funny television advert for flu medication that he featured in where a colleague was supposed to catch him as part of a trust-building exercise but failed to do so as she sneezed, leaving him to fall to the ground.

It was when he did drama that he learnt about South African theatre. “I fell in love with it in a South African context,” he said.

Johnson said this included stories such as Taliep Petersen and David Kramer’s District Six: The Musical.

Another springboard was attending a cultural exchange workshop in the early 90s, after meeting the late Zulpha Otto-Sallies in Observatory. A delegation from Trinidad and Tobago and the United Kingdom shared how they run festivals and carnivals. “We fused it with our own African Cape culture,” said Johnson. From there he and his music friends joined the Bo-Kaap Production introduced by Zulpha and had a taste of professional theatre at the Baxter Theatre. Through this production company, Johnson could complete several productions such as “Koesieste Mantality ” and “Rainbow and the Moon Princess” at the V&A Waterfront Theatre; and “Rosa” and “How Table Mountain got its Table Cloth” at the Baxter Theatre. Johnson missed an opportunity to head for Indonesia, but he got married two weeks before that news came his way.

Being a performance artist, he was often sent on workshops by the Manenberg People’s Centre and this is where he picked up many of his teaching skills.

He was also part of the band at the Manenberg People’s Centre with three friends.

Speaking about how he got involved with the Cape Cultural Collective (CCC), which has been promoting inclusivity in the arts for almost 20 years, he said he had been a duo as a guitarist with singer and actor, Jill Levenberg. 

The CCC invited them to a monthly event where they performed the Cape Malay love song, “Rosa”. 

“We kept the style of the Nederlandse Lietjie, we kept the melody, and we changed the words because Jill and I had written a play, “Maid in Cape Town”. The play was about a maid coming from a rural area and how she was treated. It told the story of a Muslim family dealing with the loss of their daughter. The maid, Sara, reminds the mother and father of their late daughter, particularly her beautiful singing voice.

The play was followed by meetings and discussions that saw the establishment of the CCC’s much-loved Rosa Choir, which has been operating for 14 years.

Johnson can often be seen playing music for the Rosa Choir and supporting other CCC programmes with sound tech or on strings.

The CCC Music and Development programme has a number of other teachers across the city.

Johnson’s aims for the programme are to train musicians so they can play back-up for the Rosa choir as well as the CCC’s Triple C Recordings, Kids Performing Arts Collective (K-PAC) and collaborate with poets from their CCC Writers Club.

“The kwaai part is that there are already opportunities for musicians to perform under the banner of the CCC. If the CCC has an event, perhaps half an hour can be for the music programme. Between myself and the music teachers, we will choose who can play, perhaps together, and everyone will get a chance to play a solo.”

Johnson said he had once given up being in the arts when his first child Taariq, 29, was born. However, he soon found his way back as he felt something was missing in his life and played as a guitarist for the Ottomans Sporting Club Malay Choir for almost 20 years.

Johnson has six children with his son Gabieb, 22, impersonating Michael Jackson in a tribute show in Spain and his daughter Ashura, 13, a member of K-PAC. His other sons are stepson Damien, 30,  Zain, 24, and Mumtaaz, 17.

Over the years, he has also seen numerous children from Manenberg follow an artistic path.

One Rosa Choir member he has seen progress from a young age is Chadwin Nel, 25.

“Chadwin showed potential from then. He’s got a lovely voice.”

He said living in Manenberg has its challenges but these youngsters show determination.

“With the charisma they have, the fighting spirit, they push through all of that. The CCC laid a platform for the youth to see there is another way of life. Some people just want to work, some people just want to go to church, others just want to go the wrong route, and then there’s the entertainment part. 

“I believe being an entertainer, we are above the psychologists, we are above the doctors, above whoever tries to heal. We are the prevention of stress. Because when I’m stressed, I take the guitar, and start playing.”

As for the CCC Music and Development Programme, he would also love to build an orchestra one day.

Ned Doman High School principal, Gwynne Philander, said Johnson had a kind and respectful presence and was always available to pupils as a music coach. 

“It’s not just his expertise, it’s the way he is, his nature, that makes kids feel safe to speak to him, express with him and learn from him, and I think that matters most.”