First three writers receive Aziz Hassim awards

A legend of Durban's Casbah is to live on through an award created in his name.

The Aziz Hassim Literary Award was created in honour of the author of the prizewinning debut novel The Lotus People.

Hassim, a former accountant, died in June, aged 78, following a bout of pneumonia. He had planned to create the award himself, in partnership with his friend, cartoon artist Nanda Soobben.

"We came up with it last year when Aziz was alive. In fact, it was two days before he went to hospital, and he named some people whom he thought would deserve it," said Soobben. The first three awards went to writers Ronnie Govender, Don Mattera and, posthumously, Richard Rive at the Centre for Fine Art, Animation and Design's annual graduation dinner on Friday night.

"What's good is that we're going to honour his legacy by honouring other writers' legacies.

"We decided we would award it to people who wrote, like Aziz Hassim, about nonracial [areas of] South Africa [during the apartheid era] - people like Ronnie Govender and the Cato Manor stories, Don Mattera and Sophiatown, Richard Rive and District 6. Aziz himself wrote about the Casbah," said Soobben.

"I don't think we could have picked anyone better than those three guys. They captured the essence of Sophiatown, of Cato Manor, of District 6."

Hassim's son Anice said he was glad to see his father's name immortalised as a source of inspiration for others. "I might be biased because he was my dad, but he was a very inspirational figure. He had a voice that was unique.

"I think anything that can inspire others to follow the voices inside their head, to say 'you can do this', is to be commended."

Govender, a long-time friend of Hassim, said: "It's a sad irony that I should be one of the first recipients of the award as Hassim had spoken to me about it during our days together. We were concerned that we did not have more people taking up writing - although we did, of course, understand that it is hard to earn a suitable living from the craft."

He said he considered the award an honour as well as a token of their friendship.