Mbongeni Ngema

Popular South African writer, lyricist, composer, director, choreographer and theatre producer, Mbongeni Ngema, is dead.

Ngema the writer of the acclaimed musical Sarafina about student riots in apartheid Soweto, died in a car crash on Wednesday at the age of 68, his family announced.

Ngema died just as the 1992 movie, developed with legendary jazz musician Hugh Masekela, was making a return with a screening at this year’s Cannes film festival classic section and a streaming release.

“It is with heavy hearts that we announce the sudden passing of our beloved brother, father, husband and a patriot, Mbongeni Ngema,” the family said in a statement.

“Ngema was killed in a head-on car accident whilst returning from attending a funeral” in Eastern Cape province”, the statement added.

He was a passenger in the vehicle.