The winners of the Via Afrika M-Net Literary Awards were announced in Cape Town on the eve of the inaugural Cape Town Book Fair, spotlighting a selection of mostly new writers but also including several well-known South African authors.
The WA Hofmeyr Prize for Afrikaans literature went to Etienne van Heerden for In stede van die liefde. His first novel to appear this decade, it is a gripping tale of dealing in drugs and art, of love, women and ambition. The novelist, who has led a generation of Afrikaans authors to published status and teaches Creative Writing at the University of Cape Town, was praised by the judges for the virtuosity and easy flow of his prose. His novel was chosen above contenders André P. Brink’s Bidsprinkaan and IL de Villiers’s poetry anthology Jerusalem tot Johannesburg.
The non-fiction Recht Malan Prize went to Antony Altbeker for The Dirty Work of Democracy, an account of a year spent working alongside several South African Police Service units. Altbeker, who first worked for the Ministry of Safety and Security between 1994 and 1998 monitoring police performance, was up against Supreme Court judge Edwin Cameron for his Edwin Cameron: Witness to Aids and Jeremy Krikler for Rand Revolt: The 1922 Insurrection and Racial Killings in South Arica.
The Herman Charles Bosman Prize for English fiction went to debut novelist Simão Kikamba for Going Home, a harrowing account of xenophobia in Africa and what it means to be ostracised in South Africa as a makwerekwere (alien).
Marlize Hobbs won the Jan Rabie Rapport Prize for innovative Afrikaans writing. Her novel, Flarde, tells of a young social worker who finds herself in one of the most desolate communities in the country.
Well-known novelist Marita van der Vyver showed her skill in writing for children, earning the MER Prize for Mia se ma, together with illustrator Piet Grobler, while the MER Prize for juvenile literature went to Fanie Viljoen for Breinbliksem.
M-Net’s Lifetime Achievement Award was awarded to Prof Cynthia Marivate, who holds a doctorate in education from Harvard University and has a long association with the M-Net Literary Awards. Professor of African languages at UNISA, she is also CEO of the Pan South African Language Board (PANSALB), chairperson of the SA Library for the Blind, and is actively involved in community initiatives to promote language, the arts and culture.
M-Net awards prizes for literary works in the country’s indigenous languages in three categories – long-format works such as novels, short-format writing such as short stories, and for poetry. The winner of the Afrikaans novel category was André P. Brink for Bidsprinkaan, while the short-format prize went to Marita van der Vyver for Bestemmings and the poetry prize to IL de Villiers for Jerusalem tot Johannesburg.
M-Net winners in the Sotho category were Mathediso Aletta Motimele for her highly readable novel, Ngwana wa Mpša, while short story author Goitsemodimo L Mancho won for the richly evocative language of Wetsho ke a go rata. No poetry award was made.
Only one outright winner was declared in the Nguni category – novelist Nelisile Thabisile Msimang for Umsebenzi Uyindlala, judged to offer an important and accessible moral message to readers. However two merit prizes were awarded, to Gubudla Aaron Malindzisa for Hawu Babe! and Philisiwe Lawrette Shange for the novella, Uthando Lungumanqoba.
The single award in the Xitsonga category went to poet SJ Malungana for Swilo Swa Humelela, an anthology of 49 poems, spanning a broad range of themes from marriage to politics, death, education, poverty and abuse.
