Peddie poet takes Sol Plaatjie Prize

EASTERN Cape poet Thabo Jijani not only took first prize in the Sol Plaatjie European Poetry competition this week, but has finally put poetry from Peddie on the map.

The 26-year-old freelance journalist's poem, Children Watching Old People, came out tops among more than 300 entries from around South Africa.

His love for the written word was sparked by the poet Mafika Gwala and nurtured by Port Elizabeth poets Mzi Mahola and Mxo Nyezwa.

The winning poem – capturing an old man drinking chibuku beer "as though he were knocking out bone marrow" while a child watches – deals with life in poorer communities.

"I tried to write the poem in such a way that it would ask something of the reader," Jijana said.

For him, winning the prize means having a platform from which he can voice his opinion about what it means to be a South African.

"And the R5000 prize will help me publish a book of poems in the near future," he said.

Jijana is also the author of Nobody's Business, an intense memoir revealing the truth about taxi wars in Port Elizabeth where his father, who lived in Motherwell, was gunned down in 2003.

His works are also published in poetry journals across the country. - Alvené du Plessis