Limpopo poetry awards
It was by sheer co-incidence that the Waterberg home region as a narrative dominated the recent Limpopo Literary Awards.
It was by sheer co-incidence that the Waterberg home region as a narrative dominated the recent Limpopo Literary Awards.
The event was held at the SABC broadcast headquarters in the Limpopo capital of Polokwane on Thursday 20 February.
In his closing remarks, Limpopo Sport, Arts and Culture chief director, Mike Moatshe, deviated from his written notes to acknowledge the presence of Waterberg man of letters, Johnny Masilela.
The BEAT editor was awarded third prize in the category of Afrikaans poetry, for his 20-poem epic, “Pampoenwerk en drug dealers”.
Moatshe is originally from Bela-Bela, and worked as a senior official at the Waterberg District Municipality.
The cherry on top was that among cultural groupings and individual poets providing entertainment was the stunning Bela–Bela Theatre dance troupe.
The Bela-Bela youngsters had the audience screaming for more when they dished out their repertoire.
The big achievers on the day were outright winners in the previously-disadvantaged languages, namely Sepedi, IsiNdebele, Tshivenda and Xitsonga, who scooped prize money of R20 000 each.
Outright winners in the English and Afrikaans categories were awarded prize money valued at R17 000, with second prize of R15 000 and R12 000 third prize.
Afrikaans as a language was also celebrated on the day, with Moatshe drawing gasps of disbelief from the audience when he disclosed that he had passed the language in matric with an incredible 98% mark.
The overall winners were namely Nare Deffo (Sepedi), Reuben Masinge (Afrikaans), Sabelo Mthombeni (Isindebele), Charlie Makwindza (Tshivenda) and Aubrey Baloyi (Xitsonga).
— The BEAT
