Mavuthela was instituted in 1964 as a division of the country's largest independent record label Gallo Africa to focus solely on producing music for the black South African market.

Bopabe had already had successes recording popular artists such as Alexandra Black Mambazo, the King's Messengers Quartet and female group the Dark City Sisters.

[6] Black South African musicians received little money and it was difficult to get air time on local radio stations, so often they performed outside record stores to attract audiences.

Some of their more successful singles were compiled onto albums such as Meet the Mahotella Queens (their first LP),[11] Indoda Mahlathini, Marena, Marks Umthakathi and Umculo Kawupheli.

The ensemble became a major live attraction and commercial success,[8] with Mahlathini's groaning vocals matched against the close harmonies of the Queens, and the driving mbaqanga-township jive work from the Makonga Tsohle Band.

[18] In 1983, in the UK Malcolm McLaren produced his influential album Duck Rock, a project that mixed unrelated genres together, including the uncredited music of Mahlathini and the Mahotella Queens.

In 1986–87, partly due to contributing to Harry Belafonte's Paradise in Gazankulu,[20] and following the success of various international releases relating to South Africa's music (such as The Indestructible Beat of Soweto and Paul Simon's Graceland (album)), the decision was made for Mahlathini and the Mahotella Queens to reunite.

In June 1988, they appeared with a galaxy of stars – from Stevie Wonder to George Michael and Peter Gabriel – at the 70th birthday tribute to Nelson Mandela at London's Wembley Arena.

In England 1989 they performed at Glastonbury[25] and collaborated with the Art of Noise, an avant-garde synthpop group, featuring on three tracks on the English band's Below The Waste album.

In 1998, former band member West Nkosi was killed in a road accident, Marks Mankwane died in the same year, followed by the death of Mahlathini in July 1999; which resulted in the demise of the group.

After a period of mourning, the Mahotella Queens decided to return to the music industry; they recruited brand-new instrumental players to a new group line-up and continue performing, touring and recording to this day.

[29][30] The style of music the Makgona Tsohle Band and its members help develop and play was Mbaqanga, (pronounced mm-bah-KAHNG-guh, with the K formed by popping the tongue off the roof of the mouth).

The style was a fusion of traditional Zulu, Sotho, Shangaan, and Xhosa music, fused with Marabi (also known as South African Jazz), and Kwela, and with modern (electric instruments), American R&B, soul, and gospel.

[26] The cyclic structure of marabi melded with traditional dance styles such as the Zulu indlamu, combined with a heavy dollop of American big band swing thrown on top.

Mahlathini" delivers his "riveting vocals in a powerful basso profundo singing style that is termed "groaning" in South Africa (think Howlin' Wolf or Wolfman Jack)".

"[2] Reviewing Thokozile, Robert Christgau said the band featured "nonpareil guitarist Marks Mankwane and ubiquitous saxophonist-producer West Nkosi", with "it's unexceptionably indestructible, bottomless baritone flexed inexorably against stout sopranos", labelling it "professional dance music at its finest and roughest.

[31] "Visually also the band were dynamic" and played on tribal imagery,[24] the "Lion of Soweto" Mahlathini "wore a chief's regalia on stage – a leopard skin over his chest, fur armlets and leggings, a skirt of animal tails and beads around his bald pate", while the Mahotella Queens wore "huge red circular Zulu hats, skirts of leather and beadwork, leotards and sneakers".

"[2] Their "combination of jubilant harmonies and choreographed dances" were, as an American critic said in 1996, like what he imagined "a Zulu version of the Supremes would have been two decades after they stopped fitting into their silken gowns.