Dr Tumi

Physician, spiritual healer, and singer/songwriter Dr Tumi has the prescription for whatever ails South Africa's gospel fans. The good doctor was born Tumisang Makweya to an Assemblies of God preacher and his school-teacher wife in Seshego, Limpopo, in 1981. His vocal talent made itself known at church and found a larger audience with his 2003 appearance on TV's Popstars. He made his recording debut four years later as lead singer of the gospel group Intense, received his medical degree around the same time, and continues to practice in Mabopane, north of Pretoria. But Dr Tumi went on to reach new heights as a singer: His 2013 solo debut, Heart of a King, earned him an SABC Crown Gospel Awards nod for best R&B gospel. Hits like "Nothing Without You," from his double-platinum 2016 live release Love and Grace, and "Jesus You're My Life," from 2019's Love on the Cross, unfold initially as R&B-inflected solo vehicles before evolving into ecstatically maximalist full-choir blowouts.