Local artist scoops South African Poetry Award

DENNILTON – The Elandsdoorn’s ever rising young and vibrant artist, Vusi Mabena has scooped yet another award, this time in the poetry fraternity.

Mabena from the area in Dennilton outside Groblersdal within the Elias Motsoaledi Local Municipality, Sekhukhune district, was nominated for the award last year in July of which the ceremony was supposed to have been hosted at the Durban ICC, Kwa-Zulu Natal Province, in November 2020 but postponed its announcement of winners due to the COVID-19 pandemic to the first week of January 2021.

The author, poet and actor said he got to be nominated for the awards after checks of his work with all his publishing companies by the organizers.

Mabena said winning the award, the South African Poetry Award for 2020, his first, meant a lot to him and couldn’t express his gratitude to the organizers, his supporters, especially people of the entire Moutse who believed in him.

“My gratitude goes out to those who voted for me as many times as they could with their resources. I also want to say to young people out there to continue to believe in themselves regardless of what others think about them, and their families’ backgrounds,” smiled Mabena.

Mabena said being a motivational speaker and poet for almost 12 years had taught him that everything had its own time.

“I am still going to work harder to make sure that I put Dennilton and Moutse as large on the map. I am also excited to announce that I have just finished writing my fourth book “My Warrior Lord Is My Successor and Shepherd, Novel Book Volume 4” which will be released soon before Month end of February 2021,” informed Mabena.

He concluded that he was currently challenged by ensuring that all his books, from Volume 1 up to Volume 4, were accessible at bookshops including established outlets and libraries across the country.

“I am currently working very hard with my publishing company, Asante Book Publishers, to achieve that goal,” added Mabena.