Siyabonga Mdwayidwayi  – Inspirational poet and ambitious community developer

Siyabonga Romeo Mdwayidwayi  is the inspirational poet and an ambitious community developer who delivers a message of hope and prosperity from generation to generation, derives from the green lands of Mount Ayliff in the Eastern Cape , but lives at Bizana. He was born on the 27th of April 1990. He is formally  known as DLAVU. He started his gift of being a poet when he was in Grade 5, at Upper Cabazana J.S.S in 2003. However,  he was recognized in 2005 at Lugelweni, where he took part in a poetry competition, taking first place in poetry. Then the beast within him started to shine throughout the years, renaming his title as a praise singer (Imbongi Yomthonyama).

He engages in many other things in the creative arts space besides being a poet. He owns an organization known as Amampondo Youth Empowerment which is focused on art development through giving a sense of belonging to the young people that are lost between the bushes, and those who are the children of the streets, by supplying a home of performance and arts. He started his Impactful journey in the creative arts back in 2009 when he founded his first organization known as Masizalane Youth Enhancement with the aim of creating not just a platform but a home for creative artists to show their work while being groomed to give back to the community.

Along his journey he won many awards like Ugqantso Lolwimi, Inkucubeko Yamasiko, Lovelife  talent show Award, Mbizana Local Municipality Award, Siyabagena Youth Programmer, Inkonjane FM Award and Spiced Beef Poetry Award to mention the few.

He collaborates with different schools to ensure that learners are taught about creative arts in the early stage, those schools include A.D Tshayingca S.S.S and Nomathebe J.S.S, Mmangweni J.S.S, Nyanisweni S.S.S, Phakamisa S.P.S. He is also a director and a scriptwriter of different drama series and theatre drama like Ilifa theatre, Luyintoni na uLudeke DVD drama and why me drama DVD. Siyabonga believes in the notion of Ubuntu which one of the African values.

He is dedicated in doing what he is doing because he wants to show the people that in Africa showing  a helping hand does not always need money, but a simple gift and inspiration can change lives. Young people with talent are his motivation to go on with what he is doing even outside the creative arts industry, when he sees a talented young person he sees an African treasure that needs to be preserved.

Being the cofounder of Khulanathi Foot Ball Association at Ludeke, Provincial Secretory of SAACYF (South African Art and Culture Youth Forum), chairperson of Bizana Writers Association and Secretory of School Government Board at Ludeke J.S.S  can be considered as his biggest achievement because they show that people are seeing value in what he is doing. Amampondo key activities are seminars, sectors and subsectors workshop( student assistance, family  intervention), physical and mental awareness programmes, writers’ exhibitions, performing arts, dialogues  and event management.

Social media help us to market our activities to the large audience of people as it allows potential attendees to interact in a live environment to ask questions, gain feedback, and engage with us. in the next five years Siyabonga would like to own a community art centre that would help more than 5000 young creatives around the country going forward.