Ronnie Govender
Ronnie Govender (1934-2021) [1] was a South African writer and playwright of Tamil descent.
Contents
Biography
Born Sathiseelan Gurilingam Govender in Cato Manor on 16 May 1934, he published, and was popularly known, as Ronnie Govender. He died on 29 April 2021.
Studied at the University of Durban-Westville.
Contribution to SA theatre, film, media and/or performance
He is one of the founding members of Shah Theatre Academy in the early 1960s and TECON in 1969.
His most celebrated play is The Lahnee’s Pleasure (first performed 1972 by TECON, published 1977), while later works include Beyond Calvary (19**), Blossoms on the Bough (19**), The Dilemma of the Swami (1986) and one-man dramatizations of his short stories, performed by Charles Pillai under the title At the Edge (1991) and 1949 (1996).
Awards, etc
He was awarded the Commonwealth Writer's Prize in 1997.
The Ronnie Govender Literary Award is named after him.
Sources
Wikipedia [2].
Various entries in the NELM catalogue.
Sunday Tribune, 18 March 2007.
Tribute by his daughter, Pregs Govender, published in Daily Maverick, 14 May 2021 [3].
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