“It feels good to see there are people who are watching and recognising what one is doing while still alive.” So said Khayelitsha jazz artist Babalwa Mentjies after receiving the GOOD Hope FM Warrior Woman Award.
Under the category Arts and Entertainment 2025, she received the honour at the WomenIN Festival held at Newlands Cricket Ground on Friday 14 November.
Mentjies is a jazz vocalist, music educator and cultural activist. She uses music to empower youth and preserve indigenous arts. She said it was the second award she had ever received on her jazz-music journey, an idiom she is most at home in.
“Last year I was named Influential Woman of the Year by Big M Productions, based at The Baxter Theatre. And this year it’s the Good Hope FM Warrior Woman Award. I am thrilled. It is good to give people flowers while they can still smell them.”
Mentjies said some of her music students had seen the advert to enter on social media and submitted her name. She said she was surprised by the support she received from the community.
“My students and friends were sending SMSes voting for me. I didn’t expect I was going to win. I thank all the people who voted for me.”
Besides singing and teaching music Mentjies also works in theatre, telling stories through her organisation Amathunzi. She said it was high time women took centre stage in the music and film industry.
