By Mashudu Sadike 
Aug 4, 2021
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Pretoria – Although Rudolph Isaac Monyela is not a professor in any academic field, he is affectionately known as Prof.
This is fitting after he bagged his 24th literary award at the weekend.
Monyela, who is a poetic genius, was honoured for his 2018 poetry book titled ’Your choice shapes your destiny’ in the Empowerment category at the virtual African Honorary Authors Awards on Saturday.
The awards saw about 260 poets and writers from across the globe being honoured on the night.
In 2016 Monyela wrote a poetry book called In Life Success Does Not Come From a Vacuum, followed by one that won the award on ultimately a leadership book titled Leaders of Personal Profit Syndrome penned in 2019.
In 2018 he got the nod for four categories at the African Poets and Authors Awards, and won two in those categories.
In 2019 he was nominated for two categories: the Authorspreneurship (academics versus non-academics/talents) Seminars Award, and the Skills Development on Educational Excellence Award from the Gauteng Premier’s Youth Excellence and Service Awards 2019, where he won both awards.
Monyela’s first words at realising his win was to thank the organisers.
“In 2018, Anthea Ambursley came with a great concept to honour African authors in order to promote social cohesion and entrepreneurial spirit to unleash the God-given talents to fellow Africans.
“This started as a dream, but it went beyond the limit through Ambursley’s confidence and passion for community development, because most traditional publishers reject African writers,” Monyela said.
“When they eventually self-publish they (publishers) tend to have interest in their work.”
Some of Monyela’s accolades include Best 2018 Male Poet of the Year and Best Male Author in 2019.
Most of what inspired the titles for his books are his life lessons.
“My book Your Choice Shapes Your Destiny was after my research on the academic educational way, as most people leave school due to peer group pressure, and later they have to face the reality of life, especially in the workplace.
“There are many people who come to me asking how they can get a matric certificate or something equivalent to it, as they lose job opportunities because of not having a matric certificate.
“People need to be careful, because the choices made now affect you in a decade to come, either positively or negatively,” he said.
Monyela has produced more than 110 candidates in various fields, including academic, arts/poetry and culture, literature, management and leadership and mentoring.
He is the founder and director of Mia-Manyatjie I Academy, and he describes himself as an author, poet, publisher, scholar, social entrepreneur, mentor, inspirational speaker, life coach and leadership and management consultant.
Monyela also got three nods in the African Poets and Authors Awards ceremony, to be held on September 4, and they are for Best Motivational Speaker, Best Motivational Poet and Best Motivational Poem.
Voting started on August 1.