Isitha Sabantu showcasing at the Market Theatre

A fictional tale inspired by real-life South African eco-defenders, Isitha Sabantu follows two grandmothers – one elephant, one human – as they fight to protect their families and land from corruption and the removal of natural resources. 

The play will be showcased at the Market Theatre from 06-22 March 2026

Brought to life by the award-winning company, Empatheatre, and featuring an all-star cast and creative team, the work blends research, poetry, puppetry, music and myth to explore courage, community and our deep connections with the land and our ancestors. 

Empatheatre’s highly anticipated new work, Isitha Sabantu, is a story of courage, interdependence, and the love that binds humans, ancestors and other beings to the land.

The story follows the tranquil village of Hlanzeka, where the bonds that knit this community quickly begin to fray when residents discover that their lives and homes lie directly in the path of a planned new coal mine. 

With courage and relentless faith, an environmental defender known as ‘Mam Nomsa’ (portrayed by Mpume Mthombeni) leads the charge against the land-hungry mine and fosters a fragile resistance to defend her home, history and ancestors. 

Churches, school halls, fields and kitchens become her battle grounds, while bees, birds, elephants and a faithful dog guide her way as she tries to unite her people against the destruction masked as progress that wears an all too familiar face. 

Worn down by the might of the system, soon the growl of machines reverberates across the same valley, poisoning the hearts and minds of the people of Hlanzeka along with their water and land. 

Her community, too, rejects her defence of their land, seeing her instead as standing in their way to prosperity.

“Her community,” states co-writer and director Neil Coppen, “are not united and she must confront corrupt traditional leaders, mounting threats to her family’s safety, and the bitter irony of being declared an enemy of the very people whose lives and land she is fighting to preserve.” 

Joined by a puppeteer elephant matriarch called Ndlovukazi, their journeys pose urgent questions about who decides what progress looks like. What is the cost of development when the dead are displaced along with the living? And who becomes the ‘enemy’ when truth threatens power?”

This information was supplied by Market Theatre.

Tickets for the show are available on www.webtickets.co.za at R110 – R220.

For more information about Isitha Sabantu visit www.markettheatre.co.za