Lesego Tlhabi (born 13 December 1988) is a South African writer and comedian best known for creating the character Coconut Kelz.
[6][7] Kelz is a "caricature of a self-loathing black person who hilariously articulates collective white anxieties in post-apartheid South Africa.
"[6] Tlhabi sees the over-the-top character as a way to "play these [racist] sentiments back to them [white girls] in a funny way so they'd actually listen and not get defensive.
"[7][6][8] Others have compared her race-bending comedy to Sacha Baron Cohen's Ali G.[3][9] The act took off on the internet and she was noticed by conventional broadcasters: in 2018 Coconut Kelz started appearing in a regular slot on Phemelo Motene's Radio 702 weekend program[2] and in 2019 the South African Broadcasting Corporation announced that Tlhabi would join Bongani Bingwa on a new show, Democracy Gauge.
Reviewer Nkosazana Dambuza wrote that, while the book may not "seem that deep", Kelz's character is a "reminder that the daily struggle of being black is far from over.