Vendaboy Poet receives three PanSALB awards

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Last Thursday night (28 February) was indeed a blessed night for Vendaboy Poet. On this particular night, the award-winning poet lifted three awards during the PanSALB Multilingualism Awards 2023-2024 ceremony held at the Durban International Convention Centre.

Lutendo Evens Mugagadeli, widely known as Vendaboy Poet, was nominated in three categories, namely the Effective Use of Mother Tongue in Music for Tshivenda, the Tshivenda Language and Literature category, and in the general Youth category. He won the first category, ended second in the Language and Literature category, and came third in the Youth category.

In an interview with the poet over the past weekend, he said that he could not hide his excitement and was full of praise for PanSALB for honouring him in such a way. He added that the awards recognised his work as an artist and acknowledged his creativity. But it is also a confirmation that he is a custodian of the Vhavenda culture and heritage. “This has boosted my morale, and I shall continue to create, be artistic, pave the way, and pass the baton,” he said.

Vendaboy Poet hailed the awards as an event that emphasised the importance of language. “Language is one of the most important elements of human DNA. It is through language that we can identify and belong to a culture,” he said.

Vendaboy Poet was born in Ha-Nthabalala village. He matriculated at Nthabiseng High and in 2008 started writing and reciting poetry, producing poetry in six different languages - Sepedi, Tshivenda, Tsonga, IsiZulu, IsiXhosa, and English. He has been recognised a number of times for his poetry and has won several awards, including Best Poet at the Tshivenda Music Awards (TSHIMA) in 2012 and Best Praise Poet at the South African Traditional Music Awards in 2018.

By: Elmon Tshikhudo

Elmon Tshikhudo started off as a photographer. He developed an interest in writing and started submitting articles to local as well as national publications. He became part of the Limpopo Mirror family in 2005 and was a permanent part of the news team until 2019.