A double bill of Scene In The City (urban intimacies) : Gauteng (for Ebenhaezer) and Ndijongiwe/ I'm Being Looked At

GAUTENG (FOR EBENHAEZER)

CREATIVE TEAM

PERFORMERS

Melusi Mnqobi Molefe is a Cape Town–based actor, theatre-maker, and emerging writer whose work stems from play and impulse. A Market Theatre Laboratory alumnus and ACT Acting Scholarship (2019) recipient, he performed in Eclipse: Phifalo ya Ngwedi and No Easter Sunday for Queers (Naledi Awards 2019); Glimmer; and Manje Manje the Epic and trained in early-years theatre under Jennie Reznek (Mina Thina and Umthi | Boom Tree). Part of the Magnet Youth Company, he developed Gauteng (for Ebenhezer) at the SO Academy. Represented by Moonyen Lee & Associates, he has appeared in commercials, Average Joe Season 2, a Netflix series (2026), and a short film with Jenna Bass.

Qondiswa James is a freelance cultural worker based in Johannesburg. An award-winning writer, performer, theatre-maker, installation artist, arts facilitator, scholar, and activist, her work engages the socio-political imagination to mobilise transgression.
She has staged public interventions at Infecting the City (Cape Town), Live Arts Festival, FNB Art Joburg, Centre for the Less Good Idea, Les Rencontres à L’échelle (France), A4 Arts Centre (China), and others. Her installations have featured at the Spier Light Art Festival and Stellenbosch Triennale.
Her theatre includes A Faint Patch of Light (Standard Bank Ovation Award 2019), A Howl in Makhanda (Fleur du Cap 2022 Best New Script & Best Original Composition), and Retch (Naledi Award 2024 Best Performer on the Fringe). She staged Amaxelegu (2024) and directed Dump State (2025).
On screen, she appeared in High Fantasy (DIFF 2018 Best SA Film & Artistic Bravery Award) and Letters from the Continent (Holland Film Festival 2021).

BAND

Asher Gamedze is a South African drummer, composer, scholar, and bandleader based in Cape Town. His music is a profound mixture of various musical traditions from Southern Africa, free improvisation, jazz, and radical social and political thought. A self-taught musician, Gamedze gained recognition over the years for his work on the drums with the likes of Angel Bat Dawid and Nduduzo Makhatini and as a session player for many other South African artists before releasing his critically acclaimed debut album, Dialectic Soul, in 2020. Named one of the best jazz albums of the year by various publications, including The New York Times, it was followed in 2022 by the duo release Outside Work. His latest album, Turbulence and Pulse, released in 2023 through a special collaboration between International Anthem and Mushroom Hour Half Hour, sees him coming back to the musicians and the political and historical questions of Dialectic Soul, infusing them with renewed significance. 

Masello Motana is a storyteller, actor, poet, writer, and super vocalist who thrives on collaborations. She has recently collaborated with Neo Muyanga and Bokani Dyer on groundbreaking Pan African Space Station shows in Cape Town, where she is currently based. She is at home with a live band, orchestra, a cappella setting, or even a DJ and vocalist setup like the Familiar Strangers project, where she collaborated with nujazz DJ True Jones. Masello has presented and acted in several television productions and recently played the lead in the film A Million Colours. She compiled and taught the children’s class at the Market Theatre Laboratory and performs stories for children.

Nobuhle Ashanti (22) is a Cape Town-based musician, composer, and arranger, skilled in jazz piano and classical violin. She trained from age 10 at Beau Soleil Music Centre and through programmes like Sekunjalo Youth and the Grahamstown International Youth Jazz Festival. She performs widely with her project Ashanti Tribe and as a session pianist/musical director, with highlights including the Cape Town Jazz Festival, Bayimba Jazz Festival, Sofar Sessions, and co-arranging Lauren Manning’s Four Walls. Ashanti Tribe blends South African jazz, R&B, and soul to celebrate heritage and healing. Nobuhle is now preparing her debut album featuring local artists and her Cape Town roots

PREVIOUS PERFORMANCES:

27–29 March 2025

Centre for the Less Good Idea – COLLATIONS 3: The Unexpected City

30 November 2025—Centre for the Less good Idea Season 11 

NDIJONGIWE/I'M BEING LOOKED AT.

CREATIVE TEAM

DIRECTOR

Mthuthuzeli ‘Blaze’ Zimba is an actor, writer, director, researcher, art teacher, and interdisciplinary artist passionate about storytelling. Zimba believes in creating performances of transgression and disruption as a way of creating dialogue to confront and address unresolved socio-political issues that plague contemporary South Africa. Zimba has recently completed his master's in theatre and performance at the University of Cape Town. Having trained as a theatre maker, he has written, directed, and produced several theatre plays and also curated thought-provoking live arts projects in various internationally acclaimed performance festivals in Cape Town. Zimba's work attempts to reimagine Black marginalised people out of the bondages of destitution. Zimba has staged numerous performance works at locally and internationally acclaimed festivals such as the ICA Infecting The City Festival (2019, 2023); LIVE ART FESTIVAL (2022, 2024); ISHASHALAZI FESTIVAL; and Zabalaza festival, to name a few. He was recently part of a children’s theatre show called Santa’s Sleighbell Safari at the ARTSCAPE theatre (2024) and Confused Mhlaba that was showing at the Baxter Theatre Festival (2025).

PERFORMERS

Zolani Bongo is a supremely talented vocalist who specialises in jazz, gospel, R&B, and African music, with a voice that can navigate across multiple genres—a true all-rounder musically. Born in Mbekweni, a township in Paarl, he started singing and developing a deep passion for music from a very tender age. Zolani has shared a stage with the likes of Winston Mankunku Ngozi, Ezra Ngukane, and Judith Sephuma, to name a few. He has also performed in numerous festivals across South Africa, including the Youth Jazz Festival at the Artscape Theatre in Cape Town, and was part of the Clash of the Choirs production. He holds other accolades, like winning The Voice Search 2012.

Siphesihle Nkantini is a multifaceted theatre performer, writer, director, and choreographer from Langa, Cape Town, working across physical theatre, poetry, and music. A 2022 Magnet Theatre graduate who later studied theatre-making at the University of Cape Town. Some of his notable works include EMERGING FOOTPRINTS, directed by Nwabisa Plaarjie; INGQUMBO, directed by Thando Doni at Magnet Theatre; RIPPED, directed by Jennie Reznek and Jayne Batzofin; FLAMES OF MY BLOOD at Somerset Playhouse in the Parel Vallei Playhouse Drama Festival; NDIJONGIWE, by Mthuthuzeli Blaze Zimba; ACTS OF KINDNESS; and THE TIDES IN (ME)DEA, with Chuma Sopotela. Choreographed AGAMENON and WOZA ALBERT!, directed by Karabo Hope Banda and performed by AFDA students. As he carries forward, his work remains deeply rooted in the cultural tapestry of his traditions.

Fezekisa Wulana, 24, is a third-year student at the University of Cape Town, studying Theatre, Dance, and Performance, specialising in theatre making. He started his theatre journey at a private arts institution in Pretoria, located at the South African State Theatre, Puo Media, where he got coaching from the late and honourable Sibusiso Khwinana, who directed his first big show, The Crucible, where he played the role of supporting lead, Reverend Parris. In the same year, 2018, he opened for a musical show Se Rona Ke Sarona, directed by Mandla Ntlaks. Since being at UCT, he’s been cast in four final-year/honours productions.

Sipho Kalako is a talented artist, known for his skills as an actor, singer, dancer, and physical theatre performer. With a strong educational background, he is a proud graduate of MagnetTheater, where he honed his craft and developed a deep appreciation for the art form. Driven by a profound desire to make a positive impact, Kalako is dedicated to giving back to his community through his artistic talents. Drawing from his own experiences in the world of performing arts, he seeks to inspire and uplift others. Motivated by this mission, he has envisioned the establishment of a centre that will teach young individuals the transformative arts of storytelling, music, dance, and indigenous instruments. His acting credits include Good Soul of Szchaun, Oedipus at Colonus, Antigone, Hamba Nam Ndipheleke, Ikrele Le Chiza, Cracked Ground, Ingqumbo Yeminyanya, Four Fathers Bananas for Baboon, The Salt Lesson, Bounced, Scoop, and Izityhilelo.

Melusi Mnqobi Molefe is a Cape Town–based actor, theatre-maker, and emerging writer whose work stems from play and impulse. A Market Theatre Laboratory alumnus and ACT Acting Scholarship (2019) recipient, he performed in Eclipse: Phifalo ya Ngwedi and No Easter Sunday for Queers (Naledi Awards 2019); Glimmer; and Manje Manje the Epic and trained in early-years theatre under Jennie Reznek (Mina Thina and Umthi | Boom Tree). Part of the Magnet Youth Company, he developed Gauteng (for Ebenhezer) at the SO Academy. Represented by Moonyen Lee & Associates, he has appeared in commercials, Average Joe Season 2, a Netflix series (2026), and a short film with Jenna Bass.