Through the legacy he has left behind, playwright and drama mentor Saduma Miya will remain synonymous with all that is theatre and cultural in Matjhabeng.
Miya, with his deep-rooted love for his community and an even deeper love of the arts, passed away on Saturday 17 August, at the age of 66.
He dedicated his life to creating an awareness of culture and a love for the theatre amongst the youth.
To capture his life’s work on paper is virtually impossible. He has left a deep and lasting impression on all who have had the honour of knowing him.
Miya was born in Kroonstad and matriculated at the Lebogang High School in Thabong.
He began his acting career in 1966 in Kroonstad. Later at Lebogang, he started the Thabong youth drama group. He was a founding member of the Thabong Arts and Culture Association and initiated the building of the current art center, where he was one of the first employees.
Saduma attained a diploma in Speech and Drama at the Federal Union of Black Artists in 1983, where he became skilled in the various aspects of the arts.
As a student he took part in performing Shakespearean setworks (Romeo and Julietand Julius Caesar).
He staged his own play, Death for Freedom, at the Market Theatre Laboratory in 1981 and also performed in Northern Lights at the Market Theatre in 1982.
He dramatised the Gr. 8 setwork Akpan and Smugglers, which was performed at different schools in Soweto.
As a student he wrote and produced various one and two-person plays.
As the founder of Sakha Ingomso Arts, a branch of the one started in Soweto and working under the umbrella of the People’s Cultural Organisation, he returned to Thabong in 1990.
This group concentrated on children still at school and offered after-hours drama workshops.
Following this came the Sithembile Community Theatre Group, which concentrated on youths who had left school.
Miya has produced and written more than 100 plays concentrating on community and social issues.
He has promoted the rights of disabled children, the rights of women and children, and has created an awareness of crime (the Adopt A Cop project) and tuberculosis (TB).
His plays have been used by the Department of Education, social services, the police, TB Awareness, and many others to create awareness on these issues in the community.
In 1993, he received the Personality of the Year (Tribune Newspaper and Ellerines) Award. In 1998, he received the Welkom Publicity Association’s Star Awards, and in 2005 he received the Matjhabeng Mayoral Certificate of Appreciation.
He is the father of the Success Cultural Group and its affiliates.
Miya and his wife, Rebecca Mogoera (a renowned dress designer whom he met in 2001 and married in 2002), established the unique Success Quito Crèche of the Arts.
This school of drama for tiny tots created and promoted a love of the arts among toddlers and children at pre-schools.
Miya and Rebecca became renowned for their annual involvement in the Give-A-Child concerts, which they established in 2005.
Miya wrote for the youth and lived for the promotion of the youth.
With the formation of his later group for young adults and the unemployed, Ziyaduma Promotions, he has left deep footprints in the annals of culture in Thabong and the Goldfields as a whole.
He might be small of stature, but he was mighty of purpose and worth in the world of theatre and culture.
His fight for recognition of the arts and its various forms continued until his death.
Miya’s passion to promote culture in the community is his quest for drama and culture will be remembered for generations to come.
Mpho Mogaecho-Molete, assistant director in the Department of Sport, Arts, Culture and Recreation in Lejweleputswa, says Miya came to her office daily to report as if he was an official.
“He held my hand and carried me through the industry. I know everything in this department because of him. He did not call me by name, but he would introduce me in every event as his daughter.”
The memorial service is today (Thursday, 22 August) at 12:00 at the Lejweleputswa District Arts and Culture Centre in Thabong.
The funeral is on Saturday, 24 August, at 08:30 at the Thabong Sports Center. Miya will be interred in the Welkom Cemetery.
He held my hand and carried me through the industry. I know everything in this departmentbecause of him. – Mpho Mogaecho-Molete
