VIDEO | Mourners gather at Durban’s Playhouse to honour Mbongeni Ngema

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Former colleagues, friends and fans of the late playwright and musical icon Mbongeni Ngema are attending his memorial service at the Playhouse Theatre in Durban on Wednesday.

Ngema died in a crash in Eastern Cape last week.

Live Proceedings below:

Among those celebrating Ngema’s life are the original cast of Sarafina, a musical film about the students involved in the June 1976 Soweto uprising against apartheid.

Film Producer Themba Ndaba worked with Ngema for many years. “We were working on a project paying homage to OR Tambo the long-serving president of the ANC. We were working on that project at a studio in my house. I worked with him when we were developing a film project kaShaka Zulu. Mbongeni Ngema he was a spirit. He was s gift to many South Africans and the youth of that time.”

‘Transformational artist’

Mbongeni Ngema’s long-time friend Vusi Mvelase has described the legendary playwright and musician as a transformational artist who weaved change into South Africa during apartheid.

He says Ngema’s bravery to stand tall against the oppressor and determination to challenge the status quo was a gift to the following generations.

“Many people do not know Mbongeni as a politician because his just regarded as an artist but Ngema was working with Mama Winnie Mandela to take young men and women to Lusaka. Many people would come to committed artists to be trained as though they were going to be part of Sarafina and in no time those people would disappear and no one would know their whereabouts those people would have been assisted by Ngema to cross the border to be trained to be part of the ANC military wing Umkhonto Wesizwe.”