Community members gather to celebrate the life and legacy of Mbuyiselwa Jacob (Jackie) Semela

On August 14, 2003, Mbuyiselwa Jacob (Jackie) Semela, founder of the Soweto Dance Theatre and founding member of Step Afrika!’s International Cultural Festival, passed away in Dube Village, Soweto. Following his passing, community members gathered to celebrate his life and legacy, and Step Afrika!’s 2003 VIP Gala dedicated a portion of its proceeds to the Semela family.

Death of a Dream

Written by John Matshikiza for the Mail & Guardian, published on October 17, 2003

“Jackie was a friend of mine who I had seen not four weeks before his death, in the streets of Grahamstown during festival time, handing out leaflets for his latest show with the Soweto Dance Theatre, which he had founded in 1989.

I don’t know if he was aware of it, but Jackie was one of the voices that persuaded me that there was a creative life to come home to in South Africa, a set of fresh voices beaming out from a video that someone gave me called We Jive Like This, telling it how it was in a refreshing sector of the performing arts, notably dance. I thought there was something to arrive to, after all.

So when I first met Jackie in the flesh, somewhere around the Market Theatre Precinct in the early 1990s, I already had a reference to him. We were friends and soulmates before we even met.

So his random death, revealed to me by chance so many weeks after it had happened, is a source of deep grief and anger. He was young — barely 40 years old — with a whole creative life in front of him. He was independently minded, intelligent, honest, modest, committed.”

VIEW THE FULL 2003 ARTICLE HERE

VIEW THE SUNDAY INDEPENDENT’S 2003 ARTICLE HERE

VIEW THE COMPANY’S TRIBUTE VIDEO ABOVE