Dizu Plaatjies - South African College of Music's head of African Music:  Practical Studies - has been awarded the ministerial Lifetime Achievement Award by the Western Cape Department of Cultural Affairs and Sport (DCAS). 

The award was made at the Cultural Affairs Awards of the Western Cape, which are hosted annually to recognise and celebrate the cultural, linguistic and heritage excellence in the province. 

Dizu is a musician and the founder and former leader of the South African group, Amampondo, the marimba group from Langa, Cape Town, that put traditional South African music on the international map in the 1980s. He is a graduate of the South African College of Music, University of Cape Town where he lectures in African Music. Since leaving Amampondo he has started a new ensemble called Ibuyambo with whom he has toured throughout the world for the last 10 years. Together with Ibuyambo he has also won two SAMA Awards for this albums, African Kings and Ubuntu-the common string.

Congratulations to Dizu for this award and recognition of his significant contribution to the field of music, arts and culture!