Celebrating seven years of South Africa’s poetic heritage

The gala event showcased the country’s rich cultural diversity and highlighted AVBOB’s continued commitment to fostering linguistic heritage through the art of poetry.

AVBOB CEO, Carl van der Riet, delivered the keynote address, describing poetry as an essential toolkit for making sense of our most deeply felt experiences.

As South Africans prepared to celebrate Heritage Day on September 24, he paid tribute to a rich and diverse local poetry scene, saying, “I’m here to encourage every poet to reimagine life and explore the possibilities of what is and what could be. Poetry offers individuals and communities the freedom to express their innermost thoughts, bypassing logic and inviting us to listen with our hearts.”

He also proudly introduced a new category of the AVBOB Poetry Competition. “As we find ourselves in the seventh year of celebrating poetry, it’s rewarding to introduce a fresh element to the project, ensuring its longevity.

“We introduced New Beginnings as a fifth writing category this year, in addition to the original themes of birth, hope, death and love. The new theme invites poets to explore the possibilities of a fresh start and capture the joy of embarking on new journeys and chapters through the art of poetry.”

Keep hope alive

The winner in each language category of the competition secured a R10 000 cash prize, a R2 500 book voucher and an elegant trophy.

Each guest to the gala received a copy of the annual anthology, I Wish I’d Said… Vol. 7, which was launched at the event. The top six poems in each language appear in the anthology (each with an English translation). The anthology is rounded out by a selection of commissioned poems, as well as one Khoikhoi poem by prolific poet, Toroga Denver.

This comprehensive collection was compiled by the editor-in-chief of the AVBOB Poetry Competition, Johann de Lange, and the Siswati editor, Prof Stanley Madonsela.

According to De Lange, poetry has a unique ability to not only express what is profoundly personal but also to provide a shared language of mourning or celebration when we need it most.

“When we read and write strong poetry, we remember we are not alone. We know that others have been here before us, looking for words just as we are now. The wonderful thing about a competition such as this is that it encourages participants to reach deep inside themselves to find the words that keep hope alive.”

This year, attendees were entertained by violin and beatbox duo Beauty and the Beat, blending timeless music and modern poetry. Their vibrant soundscapes set the scene for the event’s emcee, Tumelo Mothotoane, who assisted in introducing each winner together with Van der Riet.

Moving poetry performances were also delivered by Fezile Mpela, Siyasanga Papu, Hanli Rolfes and Nozi Langa.

The winners

In alphabetical order of language category, the 2024 AVBOB Poetry Prize (first place) winners are: Salvia Ockhuis (Afrikaans), Sarah Frost (English), Nosipho Noxolo Nxumalo (isiNdebele), Athi Simamkele Dyantyi (isiXhosa), Siyabonga Nxumalo (isiZulu), Moses Seletisha (Sepedi), Moeketsi Golden Mokotjo (Sesotho), Othusitse Moses Lobelo (Setswana), Junior Gcina Nkomo (Siswati), Humbulani Julia Tharaga (Tshivenda) and Amukelani Deborah Mashele (Xitsonga).

To order I Wish I’d Said… Vol. 7, SMS the word ‘POEM’ to 48423 (at a standard cost of R1,50 per SMS) to have it posted to you at a total cost of R240. Alternatively, email your order to tertia@naledi.co.za or find it at selected bookstores.

Visit www.avbobpoetry.co.za to access the AVBOB Poetry Library and to register for the 2025 AVBOB Poetry Competition, which is open for entries until November 30.

Winning poet profiles

Afrikaans first place: Salvia Ockhuis

Salvia Ockhuis is from Heuningvlei near Wupperthal in the Clanwilliam area. She is a registered professional nurse who took early retirement to focus on her writing. Like American poet Walt Whitman, another famous nurse, Salvia turns to nature for inspiration.

Her creativity blossomed when she began entering the AVBOB Poetry Competition, and in 2020, she placed third in the AVBOB Poetry Competition. This inspired her to keep going. Salvia has twice been a finalist in the Lapa/Kuier short story competition and was awarded a PEN Afrikaans/Jakes Gerwel Foundation writers’ residency at Paulet House in KwaNojoli.

Salvia’s winning poem, Metafoor started with a late-night notification on a WhatsApp group.

“My childhood friend had passed, and I was dumbstruck. A vivid image of something precious slipping into a crevice in the rocks appeared. Some weeks later, while standing in my late grandparents’ flower garden, I spotted a beautiful plant blooming from a crevice on the concrete stairs. My immediate sense was, ‘Oh, there’s Clement!’ Soon a poem flowed, as clear as the perennial streams of my hometown.”

English first place: Sarah Frost

Sarah Frost is a prolific poet from Durban, KwaZulu-Natal, with poems appearing in South African and international journals in print and online. Her debut poetry collection, Conduit, was published by Modjaji Press in 2011, and her second collection, River Fugue, is forthcoming from Karavan Press later this year.

She won the Mystical Poetry Prize in 2022 and was short-listed in the New Guernsey Poetry Festival competition. She works as an editor for Juta Legalbrief.

Sarah has published 34 poems in the AVBOB Poetry Library and placed fourth in the 2022 AVBOB Poetry Competition. She found that the themes of love, death and birth inspired her to dig deep. “I wrote Opacity after visiting my dear friend Janine and her partner Connor on a smallholding in Pietermaritzburg,” Sarah recalls.

“We met at university 30 years ago and have been firm friends ever since. While sipping tea together at their rewilding project, Ferncliffe Rewilding, I admired the enduring, beautiful quality of their love for each other as Janine has been quite sick. In the light of this, their relationship seemed even more special.”

isiNdebele first place: Nosipho Noxolo Nxumalo

Nosipho Noxolo Nxumalo, from eMkhondo (previously Piet Retief) in Mpumalanga, is the youngest winner. She is 19 and a BSc in Computer Science and Information Technology student at UKZN. She has big dreams of becoming a business owner and a successful poet.

Nosipho began entering the AVBOB Poetry Competition in 2020 but this year, her poem of exquisite tenderness about losing a baby caught the judge’s eye. Isikhathi sibe ngangonombhenyani translates as Time was very limited and was written in response to the death of a baby in her family, aged just two months old. For the narrator of this bittersweet poem, merely to have carried her beloved child proves to have been a gift and a triumph.

isiXhosa first place: Athi Simamkele Dyantyi

Athi Simamkele Dyantyi is a prolific poet from Ngcobo, in the Eastern Cape. He currently works as a builder, following the tradition of a poet he reveres, Mzwakhe Mbuli. (It’s a little-known fact that “The People’s Poet” was once a bricklayer!) Athi’s poetry aims to sow the seeds of hope in his readers, especially those who have been touched by loss.

His passion for preserving his mother tongue dates back to his youth. He began writing in high school when the isiXhosa teacher, Mr Dlavuza, recognised Athi’s talent with words and encouraged him to try creative writing.

Athi came second in the AVBOB Poetry Competition in 2020 and sixth in 2023. He has 35 poems published in the AVBOB Poetry Library and is the author of Qul’uye!: incwadi yemibongo (Memezela, 2022). In 2020, he was named the best isiXhosa poetry writer at the Ngcobo Gala Awards Dinner.

His winning poem, Kufandin’akufi! honours the memory of his mother, who died tragically on the day of Athi’s birth. He wanted his poem to speak back to death, saying, “Enough!”

isiZulu first place: Siyabonga Nxumalo

Siyabonga Nxumalo is a poet, publisher, editor and author who hails from KwaMshaya village, Mtubatuba. He works as an Occupational Health and Safety Officer for a sizable construction company in South Africa. Like American poet Philip Levine, who wrote about the experience of making cars in an automobile factory, Siyabonga’s work reflects the issues of labourers, their work conditions, and the relationships formed in that environment.

Siyabonga began writing in 1998, and his first book was published in 2007. He began entering the AVBOB Poetry Competition in 2019 and placed second in 2020. With more than 10 self-published books and over 50 poems published in the AVBOB Poetry Library, Siyabonga takes aspiring writers under his wing and helps them achieve their writing dreams.

“As poets, our work is to heal people’s souls and comfort their feelings. I’m amazed at how the AVBOB Poetry Competition helps and heals people. My poems have reached an audience beyond my best expectations,” says Siyabonga.

Speaking of his winning poem Kanginjena, he shares, “In the construction industry our work takes us to many different places, so when a project is over, we part from our colleagues and rarely see each other again. Some deep friendships are formed, and some people stay in contact.

This poem speaks of those lost brothers from other cities. If they had not come to those places, we would never have met. Their meeting was planned by the Almighty, and even if we are separated by death, what brought us together remains in the hearts of those who are still alive. The poem ponders how if they had never met, those left behind would not be experiencing the pain and heartaches of losing their loved ones.”

Sepedi first place: Moses Seletisha

Moses Seletisha’s writing career began at 15 in Ga-Matlala‘a Rakgoadi in Limpopo. He is now a multi-award-winning social-performance poet, biographer, translator and author. He also works as an environmentalist in the Witbank collieries, where he ensures that coal mining practices comply with environmental legislation.

Moses has earned an impressive array of awards for his literary endeavours, including the Sol Plaatje European Union Poetry Award, the SALA First-time Published Author Award for his biography of Tlokwe Maserumule, the UJ Main Prize in Creative Writing in Sesotho sa Leboa and the National Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences Non-Fiction Award. He was named a Mail & Guardian Young South African in 2021 and won second place in the AVBOB Poetry Competition in both 2022 and 2023.

Moses views himself as a custodian of his mother tongue. “I felt the need to represent and defend Sepedi (Sesotho sa Leboa) through the written word, and I appreciate how the AVBOB Poetry Competition honours all indigenous languages,” he says.

“My poem Lerato la Morapedi narrates my personal experience describing my early life as a desperate job seeker. It took root in my heart, and I am grateful this poem has been recognised.”

Sesotho first place: Moeketsi Golden Mokotjo

Moeketsi Golden Mokotjo is a prolific writer who resides in the Free State town of Bothaville, where he works as a security officer. In this regard, he follows in the footsteps of Charles Bukowski, who was also a security guard!
He began practising his craft as a 12-year-old and never quit trying. In the long hours of the working night, he had plenty of time to craft plot lines in his head. He now has 15 completed manuscripts awaiting a publisher.

Moeketsi’s entry to the AVBOB Poetry Competition was driven by his desire to improve as a writer. “I love writing with all my heart. I love entering competitions. I love competing with the best so that I can grow as a writer,” he says.

Moeketsi’s poetic inspiration grew out of his despair. “Things were falling apart; nothing added up in my life.

Nothing made any sense. In this stressful state of hopelessness, I decided to pause and take a few steps backwards. I chose a new strategy, which included writing about the things I care about the most. Instead of failing, I returned stronger in my vision.”

With this, his first literary award, Moeketsi hopes to garner interest from publishers for the manuscripts he’d like to share with the world.

Setswana first place: Othusitse Moses Lobelo

Othusitse Moses Lobelo hails from Ga-Khunwana village in North West, where he is following his artistic dreams. This multi-talented, multi-award-winning writer is a novelist, editor, playwright, voice-over artist, radio personality and community leader. His Modiri FM radio shows are based on cultural and traditional issues, as are his novels Diselammapa and Ntlhomole Mmutlwa, which were prescribed literary works for matric.

Othusitse has been nominated and shortlisted for a host of cultural, literary and musical awards. He was awarded the SANLAM/Tafelberg Prize for his youth novel Maru ga se Pula in 2021 and took second place in the PANSALB Multilingualism Awards 2023/2024. He also took second place in the 2023 AVBOB Poetry Competition, and his poems are included in volumes 4, 5 and 6 of the AVBOB Poetry anthology I wish I’d said…

Explaining his impetus to write poetry for the bereaved, Othusitse says, “African funerals are community affairs in which the whole community feels the grief of the bereaved and shares in it. The purpose of the activities preceding the funeral is to comfort and heal those who are hurting but not to rip them off.”

Siswati first place: Junior Gcina Nkomo

At just 20 years old, Junior Gcina Nkomo is a young writer with a great deal of talent. She comes from Kamhlushwa township in Mpumalanga and is a civil engineering student working towards her N5 certificate. Junior began writing in 2015 as a Grade Five learner and soon started winning Siswati speech competitions. In 2018, she entered the Inkosi Albert Luthuli Oral History competition, and, in 2021, one of her poems was published by Fundza.

Open mic sessions held under the auspices of Imagine Scholar, an education non-profit, fired her imagination and gave her a grounding in poetry performance. The AVBOB Poetry Competition offered a chance to read other poetry and to gain a sense of community. She says, “Participating in the competition helps me feel I’m in the right place. Knowing that thousands of people can read my poetry in the online library motivates me to keep working on my craft.”

Junior opened up about what drives her, “Poetry is like a therapy session. It helps me to express my feelings and know my thoughts. I’ve seen many abused and unemployed women staying in unhealthy relationships in the name of love and for the sake of money. I wrote this poem for my sister, hoping it might help her heal from everything she’s been through.

Speaking out about the abuse happening in her neighbourhood is risky, but Junior hopes that her poem, Phuma kungakabi ngemalangabi will speak to all who experience GBV.

Tshivenda first place: Humbulani Julia Tharaga

Humbulani Julia Tharaga comes from Tshilata, a village in the Vuwani area in Limpopo. In Grade Five at Matamela Primary School, her love of poetry was sparked by reading the poetry of PR Ngwana. At Davhana Secondary School, Mr Makwarela, her teacher who was also a writer, encouraged her creative writing.

She pursued tertiary studies at Pretoria Technical College and has been working as an administrator for the SAPS since 2002. “I see a lot of traumatising things in the dockets, and often death tells a terrible story. Poetry helps me deal with many painful things.” Humbulani has 42 poems published in the AVBOB Poetry Library – poems she hopes will inspire people to live differently. “I want to tell them that death is real, it’s not just the rapture coming to take them away,” she says.

When Humbulani’s beloved grandmother passed at the age of 97, she was inspired to write her winning poem O fhola. She explores the tender paradox inherent in the final hour when death brings a comforting balm, a sense of completion for a life well lived, and the promise of healing and release.

Xitsonga first place: Amukelani Deborah Mashele

Amukelani Deborah Mashele was born and raised in Pimville, Soweto, the elder of two daughters in her family. She works in a Johannesburg restaurant, like famous African-American poet and author Maya Angelou, who once served as a waitress and cook.

A deep and abiding love of poetry was instilled in Amukelani by a teacher in secondary school, and she first entered the AVBOB Poetry Competition in 2021 to develop her voice and expand her writing skills.

Amukelani was inspired to write her poem, A wu tise yini? by female friends and family who lost their babies after giving birth. “They go through such a lot when their arms are empty,” says Amukelani.

“My poem features the hardship women experience when they cannot nurture the life that grew inside them.”