Publications
Partners
MBONGENI NGEMA: 10 May 1955 – 27 December 2023
It was his dazzling smile that disarmed you, even when you were angry with him and wanted to confront Mbongeni Ngema about yet another scandal.
This especially in his later years when his social behaviour overshadowed his mammoth artistic talent.
When you confronted him and put the allegations to him, he would continue smiling and then say in his charming voice: “Mfowethu, akusoka lingenasici!” (Loosely translated as: my brother, no one is infallible.)
Ngema, who passed away after a head-on collision in the Eastern Cape yesterday, was that kind of person - who could move easily from being a most loved figure in the arts, a generous creator of jobs and opportunities, to a reviled woman-abuser.
WATCH | 'African giant' has fallen - Mbongeni Ngema's last dance to Stimela Sase Zola
If Gibson Kente was the father of black SA theatre, then Mbongeni was certainly the prince of the SA musical.
While Sarafina! is arguably his most remembered theatrical work – mainly because it launched the careers of such people as Leleti Khumalo, Somizi Mhlongo, Baby Cele and Dumisani Dlamini among other actors who have become household names in local theatre and TV acting – the work that truly cemented his reputation as an actor before he started writing was Woza Albert!
His acting had a lot to do with where he came from. Born in Verulam and raised in eNhlwathi, a village in eShowe, Ngema straddled the culture and social mores of both rural KwaZulu-Natal and the urban life that he imbibed at a formative age in Verulam, outside Durban.
READ: Why the magic of Sarafina! still endures
At a young age, he taught himself how to play the guitar and sing. He knew nothing about the theatre at all, until he saw one of Gibson Kente’s stage plays in Durban in the early 1980s. He immediately fell in love with the theatre, especially the Kente style of acting.
A year after he saw Kente’s play, he travelled to Johannesburg, with the intention of joining the great playwright. He had never been to Johannesburg before. So when he got to the city, he asked around: how do I get to Soweto?
Good samaritans told him where to get the taxi that would take him to Dube, where Kente’s house was located. Needless to say, he did not have an appointment with Kente, and the great playwright had no time for him.
The smooth talker that he was, Ngema managed to insinuate himself on the many young people who worked for Kente. At any given time, there would be around 30 people at the Kente compound – some of them with roles in current productions, others were members of the crew, others being hangers-on who kept getting auditioned and rejected for future productions.
Kente immediately realised that he could enlist his services as a guitar player and singer. That’s how Ngema got to stay officially at the Kente house.
When Kente’s production Mama and the Load got into rehearsal, Ngema was there. He had developed a friendship with one Percy Mtwa, who was a dancer.
During the long arduous countrywide tour by bus, Ngema and Mtwa would spend time drinking, smoking dagga and brainstorming a two-man play. The play imagined Jesus Christ coming to South Africa at the height of apartheid. What would He think? How would He react to the inhumane manner in which black people were being treated by the white racist regime?
READ: 'For them it was acting, for us it was real' - Leleti Khumalo remembers Sarafina!
When they thought their idea was ripe enough, they abandoned ship, leaving Kente in the lurch. They went to Transkei, as a group of businesspeople there had offered to finance their two-man play. However, when they got there, the businesspeople had changed their minds – no more funding for their play.
They were stuck in Transkei, hungry and broke. Nevertheless, they continue to rehearse. When the Transkei authorities got wind of the “subversive” story that the two outsiders were performing, they were arrested and kept in detention for a few months. Upon their release, they went to Johannesburg.
In the city, they managed to meet up with Barney Simon, a reputable theatrical director at the Market Theatre. He helped them refine their story idea. That is how Woza Albert! was born.
The revolutionary play shook the country with its powerful message. Overseas promoters got interested. Ngema and Mtwa flew for the first time in their lives – to England and Scotland. They made more money than they had ever imagined in their lives. And their names were always in the newspapers.
It was at the height of his fame with Woza Albert! that Ngema got married to Xoliswa Nduneni, a young lady from Daveyton.
At the afterparty, Mtwa charmed Xoliswa expressing undying love for her; Ngema, on the hand, had eyes only for Mpumi. Xoliswa politely told Mtwa that at 17, she was still too young to have an affair – especially with a grown man who was already employed.
Mpumi was very protective of her younger charge, and made sure that no physical contact happened even though Mtwa and Ngema were trying their best to take the two ladies home. They parted on good terms.
A few months later, the play was being performed at a theatre in Grahamstown. Again, the two ladies went to see it. Again, they found themselves at the afterparty.
This time Mtwa wanted to go out with Mpumi, and Ngema wanted Xoliswa. Mpumi was now convinced that the two men were drunks and could not remember having met the two ladies before. Again, after the party, the two sisters left untouched by the two actors.
READ: Tu Nokwe drops fight for Sarafina!, forgives Mbongeni Ngema
A year later, Xoliswa was walking in her neighbourhood in Daveyton when he bumped into Ngema again. Always the charmer, Ngema started singing praises to the light-skinned, lanky young lady in front of him.
Xoliswa lost her cool:
She told him how they had first met. Ngema was a bit embarrassed, but soon recovered – and pushed on, saying: “When I first met you, I was still drinking and smoking dagga. I have since stopped those habits.”
Xoliswa would soon discover that he was telling the truth. When he and Mtwa started working on Woza Albert! they stopped drinking and smoking pot. They flirted with Islam. They read a lot of philosophy books. They read Jerzy Grotowski, more specifically Towards a Poor Theatre.
Ngema toured the world, making lots of money. She would visit him in England every now and then.
In 1986, Ngema wrote a play that almost cost him his life. Asinamali was inspired by the life of social activist Msizi Dube, who led the people of Lamontville township in their refusal to pay rent and rates to the city council of Durban. For leading this anti-rent strike, Dube was killed.
When Asinamali was to be performed in Mpumalanga township, just west of Durban, Inkatha people who had heard that the play vilified their leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi came to Glazier Hall, to stop the performance.
Outside the hall, they killed a man they mistook for Ngema. But that man was Jeff Shongwe, one of Ngema’s associates.
After Asinamali, Ngema fled to Johannesburg with his young wife. At that time, Ngema had started working on the story of Sarafina!. He recruited a group of kids to participate in the play – including Leleti Khumalo who was 15 years old at that time.
READ: Iconic Sarafina heads to Cannes Film Festival 31 years after its release
Rehearsals for Sarafina! started in Johannesburg. It was weeks before Sarafina! hit the stage at the Market Theatre in June 1986 when Xoliswa Ngema confirmed a long-standing rumour that her husband was having an affair with the teenage Leleti. She bit young Leleti severely.
From there, the marriage was irretrievable. By the time the Sarafina! cast transferred to the United States in August 1986, the marriage was over – but the couple still had not divorced.
The couple, who had worked together in conceptualising Sarafina!, remained business partners. When Ngema proposed that Xoliswa be part of a polygamous marriage, she refused.
Through Sarafina!, Ngema helped put the plight of black South Africans on an international stage - literally.
Ngema became so rich he started travelling by Concorde, that revolutionary aircraft that could cover the distance between New York and London in 2 hours 52 minutes and 59 seconds.
Ordinary planes covered that distance in 7 hours. Ngema was a multi-millionaire when millionaires were far and few - long before the tenderpreneurs came to pollute the SA business air.
Sarafina! became such a powerful story that Hollywood wanted a movie made. Anant Singh, at that time - a small-time producer, started working with Ngema on the movie.
Big-name actors such as Whoopie Goldberg were roped in. Leleti played alongside her. Sarafina! was released in October 1992, becoming an immediate box office hit. It made $8.6 million.
After the release of Sarafina!, Xoliswa and Ngema finally got divorced. Ngema got married to Leleti Khumalo. They later got divorced.
Ngema moved on to other major theatrical works including Magic at 4am, The Zulu and others. Apart from his theatrical work, he was a great composer, and one of his classic songs is Stimela Sase Zola, the hilarious song which to this day still sets the dance floor on fire.
But it was the R14 million he got from Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma for Sarafina! 2, a sequel to the original work, that remains embedded in the minds of many.
READ: Duma Ndlovu | How Sarafina! became a broadway hit
Dlamini-Zuma, who was minister of health at the time, had not followed procedure in granting Ngema the money to stage the play which was sold as an Aids awareness play.
It was unfortunate that the scandal undermined Ngema’s artistic genius. Those people who’d never heard of him, suddenly latched on to the scandal. His name was mud.
However, because he was such an honest person and a talented individual, he always shrugged away a scandal. He maintained he had committed no wrong.
His name would later come in the media again, with him being accused of abusing women. It was sad to see such a talented, good human being, a great thinker messing up his legacy by failing to control his urges.
But as he would have said: "Akusoka lingenasici."
- Khumalo is the author of Heart of a Strong Woman, the life story of Xoliswa Nduneni-Ngema, which was published in 2020.
