People's Poet party goes awry
2003-09-22 23:51
Johannesburg - Confusion reigned on Monday when the so-called "People's Poet", Mzwake Mbuli, abruptly left VIP guests high and dry at an awards ceremony which he had launched.
The drama unfolded at Leeukop Prison outside Johannesburg.
Mbuli, serving a sentence for armed robbery, was one of the guests of honour at the ceremony at which bursaries
were given to deserving prison inmates.
It was Mbuli's initiative.
The People's Poet, so called for his fiery verse, attended in a blue tracksuit bottom and a maroon jersey.
After his opening speech, in which he poetically declared that human nature did not appreciate good things, he
was called aside by a senior prison officer.
After some whispered words betweeen the two, an angry-looking Mbuli was whisked away by warders.
The rest of the ceremony continued without him.
As awards were being dished out by the executive mayor of Ekurhuleni, Duma Nkosi, members of the audience
could be heard wondering what had happened to the poet hero.
Daily Sun learned that senior prison officials had queried why he was being given preferential treatment by being
allowed to appear in public in civilian clothes. He should have been wearing red prison garments, they said.
It was after being told this that Mbuli abruptly left.
Prison liaison officer Isaac Mosiane was tight-lipped about the affair. He referred all questions to the area
commissioner, Walter Mashiya, who said: "I was seated here with the mayor. I do not know why Mbuli left. We
will investigate. However the, privilege for a prisoner to wear his own clothes is at my discretion."
The idea of bursaries for prisoners was Mbuli's brainchild and he had been driving it for some time. Monday was to have been the high point of the initiative.
- Daily Sun