Nomsa Mazwai Says She Wrote and Sang 'Traveller.' She Says Black Coffee Never Paid Her For It, and Now She Loses Her Home

Nomsa Mazwai, who records as Nomisupasta and is the sister of Thandiswa Mazwai and Ntsiki Mazwai, says she is one signature away from losing the roof over her children's heads, and she is blaming one of house music's biggest global names for it.

What does Mazwai say happened with 'Traveller'?

According to Mazwai, Black Coffee approached her to collaborate after watching her perform at Madiba's, a venue in Brooklyn, Johannesburg, back in 2011. What followed became Black Coffee's 'Traveller,' a track credited to Black Coffee, Black Motion and Mazwai that has become an Afro house standard over the past decade.

Mazwai's account of the session is blunt. "I organised a studio. ME! I wrote and sang all the lyrics to traveller," she has said. She frames her role as far beyond a guest vocal: the writer and voice of the record, not a hired feature.

What is she alleging in the Gauteng High Court?

Mazwai says 'Traveller' has generated more than R2 million in royalties over the years, and that she has personally received less than R30,000 of it. She has now taken the matter to the Gauteng High Court in Johannesburg, filing a case against Black Coffee directly.

Her account of the payment chain matters here: she says SAMPRA, South Africa's performance rights organisation, did pay her a performer-share royalty, and separately paid both Black Motion and Black Coffee their shares. Her allegation is narrower and more specific than "I was never paid anything": she says Black Coffee never forwarded her the songwriter and producer share she believes she is owed directly from him.

"I did not want payment I wanted royalties."

That distinction, between a one-off session fee and an ongoing royalty stream tied to authorship, is exactly the kind of dispute that keeps recurring across African music publishing, where credit splits and direct-payment arrangements between collaborators are often informal and undocumented compared to formal sync and performance-royalty pipelines.

Why is September 1 the deadline?

Mazwai has been explicit about the stakes for her personally. "I have not been paid over R2 million in royalties. On the 1st of September this year, I lose my home," she has said. She has also said: "I need a home to raise my children as a single mother. I am an honest worker and all I want is honest pay."

That date is her own stated financial deadline, not a scheduled Gauteng High Court hearing date; no hearing date has been confirmed publicly. But it is the sharpest illustration of what a royalty dispute means in practical terms for a working artist without a label's legal machinery behind her, set against a collaborator who tours the world's biggest stages.

Mazwai has also used the moment to take a swing at the industry's award system more broadly. She has won a South African Music Award for Best African Alternative, yet says: "The SAMA's are just expensive PR and that is a huge shame!"

Has Black Coffee responded?

Black Coffee has not publicly responded to Mazwai's allegations as of this writing. It has been an unusually litigious year for him regardless: late August 2026 saw him win a separate lawsuit against Maserati South Africa, according to Exron Music. That case is unrelated to Mazwai's claims, but it underlines how much of Black Coffee's 2026 has played out in courtrooms rather than clubs.