'Sarafina!' celebrated South African playwright Mbongeni Ngema dies in car crash at 68

The family of renowned South African playwright, producer and composer Mbongeni Ngema said he has died in a car crash at the age of 68

South Africa Mbongeni Ngema Obit (Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)

Renowned South African playwright, producer and composer Mbongeni Ngema has died in a car crash at the age of 68, his family said.

“Ngema was killed in a head-on car accident while returning from a funeral he was attending in Lusikisiki in the Eastern Cape this evening,” his family said in a statement Wednesday. The celebrated playwright was a passenger in the vehicle involved in the crash.

He was best known for creating the hit Sarafina! which first premiered on Broadway in 1988. It was adapted into a musical drama starring Whoopi Goldberg in 1992 which became an international success and was nominated for the Tony and Grammy Awards.

Sarafina! told the story of a young student and how she inspired her peers to fight against racial segregation in apartheid South Africa after her teacher was thrown in jail.

Apartheid was an institutionalized system that discriminated against non-whites and ensured South Africa was ruled by the minority white population from 1948 till the early 1990s.

Ngema's body of work includes the much-acclaimed theatre production Woza Albert, which first showed in 1981 and went on to win more than 20 awards across the world.