Meet the DJ with a Big Heart

Thousands of people are benefitting from the food scheme project run by radio and club disc jockey Jazzy D. Jazzy D runs the project in Eersterust, east of Pretoria. In 2020, the DJ added a project that renovates people’s home that are in bad conditions at no cost to them.

It was a plea from a hungry child who had asked DJ Jazzy D for food on one Christmas Day.

The now-famous radio and club DJ, who was born Jazzy Diadora, is on a mission to assist families that are less fortunate in his hometown, Pretoria.

Like the people he helps, Diadora also knows how it is like to rely on other people for help.

Before he became a household name working for the popular radio station Jacaranda, he used to DJ at a nearby club called Bel Air in Eersterust, where his uncle used to play.

Eersterust, like most South African townships, members of the community have to fight drug addictions that have griped what would be bright futures for the youth. Crime, unemployment, gangsterism, and poverty show like the cracks in the walls of homes that are decaying.

He said what saved him from the temptation of what he describes as the forbidden such as using drugs and getting himself involved in criminal activities was his love for DJing.

“Let me take you back to what I said initially about my goal – that was the turning point in my life. It was not always smooth sailing. I started off helping my uncle at Club Bel Air and becoming a DJ was a far-off dream. I started watching him play since I was 7 years old and mentally took note of what he did and knew that one day I would be able to apply this skill. That one day came and I never looked back,” Diadora said.

All those hardships made him want to make life seem a bit for other people.

Diadora started a project where he renovates houses in Eersterust that are decaying and dilapidating.

Last year, the DJ, together with the community, managed to build a house for aunty Von, who has had both her legs amputated. Aunty Von lived in what looked like a shack that was in a bad condition, patched with iron zinc that has rusted and pieces of boards.

He used his social media platforms to appeal to his followers to donate to building aunty Von a house she could call home.

Apart from building aunty Von a home, and renovating houses that are in a bad condition, Diadora donated food parcels to families who are struggling to make ends meet.

Through his organisation, Feed a Family, Diadora has a feeding programme that was able to prepare warm meals for over 93 000 people in a single day during the pandemic.

During Mandela Day, in 2020, Diadora together with the Jacaranda FM Breakfast with Martin Bester team, about R670 000 was raised in two days by asking listeners to donate R67 on Mandela Day.

The money would be used to feed more people.

Speaking on the show last year, Diadora was quoted saying: “I don’t know what to say but ‘thank you’. Many of us are concerned with a brand of coffee that we can’t find in a store, or when we’ll be able to go to the movies again, while many people don’t know where their next meal will be coming from. It’s amazing what we can do if we just look at the person next to us and believe that they are worth living for, even if they don’t believe it themselves.”