South African poet who wrote in English and Zulu and whose work drew deeply upon the immediate experience of life in the Johannesburg township of Soweto.

He worked as a messenger before his first collection of poems, Sounds of a Cowhide Drum (1971), won the Olive Schreiner Prize for 1974. After studying in the United States at the University of Iowa and Columbia University (New York), Mtshali returned to South Africa in 1979 and taught at a private school in Soweto. His second volume of poems, Fireflames (1980), was banned by the South African government because it was dedicated to the schoolchildren of Soweto, an obvious reference to the uprising there in 1976.

Mtshali's poetry inevitably reflects his harsh experiences under the apartheid regime. He observes with a bitter and sardonic eye the grimy beer halls, the crowded trains, the slum housing, and the harsh working conditions that make up the lot of black Africans in South Africa. His bitterness finds expression in brilliantly controlled lines etched with an acid irony. Mtshali's poetry is remarkable for its evocative imagery, and his confident and unexpected similes have a rich emotional impact.