Sam Mhangwane

Sam Mhangwane (19**-) Playwright and director.

Along with Gibson Kente, he is the creator of the “township musical” style popular entertainment. His melodramatic tale entitled The Unfaithful Woman, which premiered in 1966, is reputed to be the longest running play in South African theatre history, still going strong in the mid-eighties. Blame Yourself (1970) was another success.

Mhangwane also ran courses in acting for young black performers in Johannesburg.

He worked with SATO, and his work was rejected as cheap escapist entertainment by SASO and the intellectuals of the BCM.

In the 2000s he ran Drakensberg Promotions, organisers of jazz festivals.

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