Tribute to CITYLIFE/ARTS freelance contributing writer Jojokhala Mei,who has passed on

The late writer who was buried on April 10, 2026, at Westpark Cemetery in Johannesburg, loved reading and was a regular presence in libraries around Johannesburg where he devoured especially fiction books.

By Edward Tsumele, CITYLIFE/ARTS Editor

Playwright and freelance writer who contributed arts related pieces to CITYLIFE/ARTS Jojokhala Mei, who passed on April, 2, 2026 after a short illness, was laid to rest at Westpark Cemetery on April 10, 2026. Mei (58) was laid next top his mother, who is also buried in the same place. Jojo was the son of well-known late academic Professor Mei, and his mother was a teacher. Political activists, the Meis were in exile during the struggle against apartheid, having lived in both Zambia and Zimbabwe, where Mei senior taught, before coming back to South Africa with his family, including, his wife, Jojo and his late sister, when the ANC and other movements were unbanned in the 1990s. The Meis are originally from Hershel in the Eastern Cape Province.

 I last saw Jojo in early March at Campus Square in Auckland Park, Johannesburg, and he had told me that people say he had lost weight, but he looked fine to me. When I was in hospital recently he visited me. He even had said he was going to visit me. That of course will no longer happen.

Meantime, Jojo’s death has left his nephew Vuyo Tshepo Mei distraught who told me the following on the day of his death.

“I’ve got some very sad news. I found my uncle dead in his room today (April 2, 2026). Earlier this afternoon, his neighbours told me he had collapsed on the road. They tried to help him, gave him food, and put him back inside the house. I don’t think he was eating, and it may have been related to kidney failure. It seems like a natural death.I had given him money for painkillers this past Tuesday. I really wish I could have done more for him—he was my mother’s brother.I had to jump over the fence to get into the house, and I found him lying on the floor. No one had noticed because the house was locked.He was a good person, and it’s painful that he passed like this,” Vuyo an award winning poet told me. He lived nearby in Auckland Park, but previously lived in Brixton at a separate house from his uncle’s for a long time.

Mei, a graduate of Rhodes University with a BA in theatre, and Wits University, where he graduated with a BA (Hons) in theatre, worked for a number of institutions after graduating, including Appluae magazine where he worked with the late well known theatre publicist Otto Moloto, Market Theatre and Windybrow Centre of the Arts.

His was a freelance contributor to CITYLIFE/ARTS, and loved writing about the arts in general, but loved writing short stories more in particular.

He loved fiction so much that he was contemplating at the time of his death to apply to study for a Masters’ degree in Creative Writing at University of Pretoria at the time of his death.

Mei loved reading, so much to the extent that he was a common presence to a number of libraries in Johannesburg, including City Library in Johannesburg CBD, Coronation Library, Melville Library and Emmerantia Library. It is the last two where I would regularly find him, buried in especially fiction books that he would intently devour, after which he would write reviews for CITYLIFE/ARTS. He also loved theatre, and wasa regular at Market Theatre and Joburg Theatre attending shows.

A very quiet person, who loved to be alone, he however frequented a few particular places in Johannesburg to unwind with either a Black Label or a castle in hand, such as Laduma in Brixton and De Peak in Newtown, the later a popular place with especially actors, theatre directors, musicians, visual artists and writers. The place is popular because of their cheap beers and the fact that there is a sense of community where almost everyone knows everyone.

. The late Jojo as we called him, will be missed at these social places.

At the time of his demise, Mei was single and had no children. He passed on after complaining of chest pains. He was found lying in the bedroom of his Brixton house, where he lived alone.

May Jojokhala Claredon Mei’s soul rest in peace.