Online Reporter
JOHANNESBURG: Pietermaritzburg-born director and producer Lindani Mbense’s documentary “Dr Mbongeni Ngema: This Is My Story” was screened at the Joburg Film Festival (JFF) 2026 edition.
The award-winning film forms part of Mbense’s ongoing documentary series, “This Is My Story”, a deeply personal project that seeks to capture the untold narratives of South African icons before time, memory, or circumstance erases them. Mbense, speaking to IOL, unpacked the concept of iconic South Africans telling their own stories as they reflect on their illustrious careers.
“Dr Mbongeni Ngema: This Is My Story” embeds a lot of South African history within the theatre space, within the artistic space, within the sports, art, and culture. “It’s very deep culturally. He’s a very sacred part of the South African theatre space. Every time you speak of Dr Ngema, you quickly jump to Sarafina, but he did so much more than just Sarafina, all the plays he did.” Mbense began working on the documentary in 2020 and was fortunate enough to have filmed Ngema telling his story before he died in 2023. The playwright passed on even before seeing the final body of work.
Mbense reflected that, from an audience point of view, we were very lucky that Ngema left them with his story. “From a South African point of view, from an international point of view, we were very lucky that he did leave us with the story now.
“We’ve got a full story that he tells about; how it all happened, how it all began, the trials and tribulations of it, the challenges, the successes, the great people that he got to touch and work with along the way.” — IOL
