Celebrated African poet Professor Mazizi Kunene has died, the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) reported on Saturday.
Kunene died in Durban after a long illness. He was 76.
In 2005 Kunene was awarded the inaugural South African National Poet Laureate Prize, the M-Net Literary Awards Lifetime Achievement Award and recognised as a National Living Treasure by the Indigenous Knowledge Systems of South Africa.
He is widely viewed as a prominent exponent of the written Zulu word.
Kunene studied in England, the United States and Lesotho.
He returned to South Africa in 1992 and was based at the University of KwaZulu-Natal until he retired.
He is well known for his epic poem Emperor Shaka the Great, which is inspired by the rise of the Zulu empire.
Funeral arrangements had not been finalised yet.
He is survived by his wife, three sons and a daughter, the SABC reported. — Sapa