King Katra Brings South African Spinning Culture To Uganda
By Mwambazi Lawrence
Uganda’s automotive entertainment scene is set for a smoky takeover when South African spinning sensation King Katra arrives for the inaugural Smoke & Steel event at Banana Resort from August 21–23, 2026.
Katra, whose real name is Katlego Mokgoshi, is expected land in the country this Friday and headline a weekend dedicated to celebrating cars, motorsport, automotive culture and entertainment. His arrival adds an international dimension to an event expected to attract car spinning and drifting enthusiasts from Uganda and beyond.
For those unfamiliar with the world of car spinning, Katra’s performances are anything but an ordinary drive. With the rear wheels spinning, the steering working overtime and tyres disappearing faster than fuel at a rally service park, the South African has turned controlled chaos into a form of automotive entertainment.
Katra’s journey behind the wheel began at the age of 14 in 2015. He was inspired by his father, Pux Setsiba, a pioneer of car spinning in Polokwane, South Africa.
What started as a teenage passion gradually developed into a serious career. Katra worked his way through South Africa’s competitive spinning scene, developing the driving skills and showmanship that would eventually establish him as one of the country’s prominent spinning personalities.
His major breakthrough came in 2020, when he won the prestigious Red Bull Shay’iMoto car-spinning championship. The victory demonstrated his ability to combine vehicle control and entertainment, while also placing his name firmly among South Africa’s emerging spinning stars.
Since then, Katra has taken his skills beyond South Africa, performing and competing in countries including Botswana, Lesotho and Eswatini and now coming to Uganda.
At the centre of his career has been the iconic BMW E30, a car that has become closely associated with his spinning performances.
While the E30 is admired by many enthusiasts for its classic design and rear-wheel-drive character, Katra has found a rather different way of celebrating the machine.
He makes it go sideways.
And then keeps it sideways.
And when the tyres begin producing clouds of smoke, the crowd usually knows the show has officially started.
Spinning requires precise throttle control, steering inputs, timing and an understanding of how the car behaves when pushed to its limits. The objective may look simple from the outside, but maintaining control while deliberately sending a powerful rear-wheel-drive car into a spin requires concentration and experience.
Katra’s style has helped him build a substantial following among automotive enthusiasts, with his performances and behind-the-scenes content attracting attention across social media. His growing international profile received another boost in June 2026, when he was announced as a Monster Energy signed athlete at the Gas Motor Show in Durban, South Africa.
Now, Uganda gets its opportunity to experience the spectacle first-hand.
Smoke & Steel, scheduled for August 21–23 at Banana Resort, is expected to bring together car enthusiasts, automotive personalities and fans of high-energy motoring entertainment. For Ugandan enthusiasts accustomed to rally cars attacking stages and race cars chasing lap times, spinning offers a different form of spectacle.
There are no conventional racing lines to follow and certainly no concern about keeping the tyres looking new. Instead, the audience gets the sight and sound of powerful cars being pushed through controlled spins, accompanied by screaming engines and clouds of tyre smoke.
For the tyres, it is arguably the worst weekend of their lives.
For the spectators, it could be one of the most entertaining.
Katra’s appearance is therefore expected to be one of the major attractions of Smoke & Steel 2026, bringing a taste of South Africa’s vibrant spinning culture to the Ugandan automotive community.
The message from Banana Resort is becoming increasingly clear: this will not be a quiet weekend for cars. The engines will roar, the tyres will scream and the smoke will rise.
And somewhere in the middle of it all will be King Katra, steering an E30 through the kind of automotive choreography that has earned him his crown.
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