Exile, alcoholism, drug addiction, discrimination, failed marriages - South African jazz icon Hugh Masekela has been through them all.

Now he has broadened his act beyond music to include educating township children on the dangers of addiction, talking about more than four decades on drugs and alcohol.

"I've had a long dysfunctional life," he said after speaking to a school in Tembisa last week.

"I wouldn't like to see them go through the drug addiction, the womanising, just the craziness. I think it's important to warn them but also to warn them to have passion for what they want to be."

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