Francois van Coke and Zaan Sonnekus have joined forces for ‘LEWE’, a new single built around a straightforward idea: life is happening now, so you might as well make something of it.
It is the second collaboration between the two South African rock musicians following 2023’s ‘Almal Baklei’, but there is a deeper connection between them than another shared recording. Van Coke recognises in Sonnekus the same physical commitment to music that drove him when he was younger, while Sonnekus grew up listening to Van Coke and watching him help force Afrikaans rock into a much bigger cultural space.
That generational link gives ‘LEWE’ much of its charge. Van Coke has spent more than two decades at the centre of South African alternative music, first with Fokofpolisiekar and Van Coke Kartel and later through his solo career. Sonnekus belongs to a younger wave of Afrikaans rock musicians who grew up with that groundwork already laid, making their friendship and collaboration a neat meeting of two different chapters in the scene.
The accompanying video takes the song’s live-for-now premise literally. Instead of constructing an elaborate narrative, Van Coke and Sonnekus spend several days doing the sort of things that tend to make better memories than schedules: surfing, racing go-karts, tattooing each other and even jamming with residents at a nursing home.
There is a permanent souvenir from the collaboration too. The artwork for ‘LEWE’ comes from a tattoo Sonnekus put on Van Coke’s leg, neatly collapsing the distinction between cover art, friendship and a decision that isn’t going to disappear when the promotional cycle ends.
Filmed by Julius Bekker, the video captures the pair largely getting on with enjoying themselves rather than performing enjoyment for the camera. That loose approach suits a song concerned with squeezing something meaningful out of the time available.
For Sonnekus, working alongside one of the musicians who inspired him to make music in the first place brings things full circle. For Van Coke, the collaboration provides an opportunity to work with an artist whose determination reminds him of his own beginnings.
The pair will bring that energy to the stage when Sonnekus joins the wider celebrations around Francois van Coke & Vriende 2026 at SunBet Arena, Time Square in Pretoria on October 9. With ‘LEWE’, the philosophy is considerably simpler: make the music, get the tattoo, race the go-kart and worry about tomorrow when it arrives.
