Malotana comes from the small community of Zwartwater about an hour and a half from East London. His rugby, though, was learnt on the playing fields of two of the country´s most elite institutions - St Andrews College in Grahamstown and Queens College in Queenstown. Although he only started playing rugby when he was 15 this strong centre or wing has already made his mark on rugby in South Africa. He has played for the SA Schools and the SA Under 19 team and travelled to Romania in 1995 to compete in the Junior World Cup. In 1997 Kaya, as he is known, had the great experience of playing for Border against the touring Lions team and his accomplished performance that day won him a place on the bench for the Emerging Springboks against the Lions later on the tour. Kaya has always been chosen on merit and despises being referred to as a development player. His superlative displays in the Vodacom and Currie Cup in 99 bore this out and earned him selection to the Springboks´ World Cup squad, where he won a test cap against Spain, becoming the first black African to do so. He couldn´t speak English until he was in Standard 1 and Afrikaans until Standard 3. Kaya´s parents had to drive 60km to a restaurant in Queenstown to watch him play during the World Cup. When not playing rugby Kaya likes to relax by catching a movie.