[1] He grew up between Lushington near Seymour and Port Elizabeth, living the Eastern Cape as Mzikayise Winston Mahola.
Extracts of his work have been translated into Danish, German, Norwegian, Spanish, Turkish and Malayalam languages.
He translated a selection of his poems into his mother tongue and published his first Xhosa poetry book titled Ezingaqhelekanga, meaning Strange Things in 2021.
His first poetry volume Strange Things (Snailpress 1994) was selected to represent South Africa in the World Book Fair in Geneva in 1995.
His second poetry book of verse, When Rains Come (Carapace 2000) won the Olive Schreiner Literary award for 2000-01 under the auspices of Wits English Academy.
In 1979 he was crowned national Flyweight Champion at the South African Amateur Boxing Union championships (SAABU) held at Milner Park in Gauteng.
He was also a Chairperson of the Friends of the Zwide Library where he conducted a voluntary project of creative writing until the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic.
As a member of the Toastmasters International he won first place in the Eastern Cape Division in Humorous Speech Competition in 1990.
Mahola’s poem commemorating fallen heroes of the struggle is scrawled on the monument at Emlotheni Memorial Park in New Brighton in Gqeberha.
It received positive reviewing and was amongst those selected to represent South Africa in Geneva World Book Fair in 1995.
In 2014 he published his fourth poetry volume titled The Last Chapter by Imbizo Arts of South Africa, Port Elizabeth.
The semi-biographical novel, inspired by his life before he was recruited to operate underground for the ANC, received positive reviewing because of its nature.
It is a narrative of personal encounter, detentions, interrogations, torture and loss of material in the hands of the feared and above-the-law members of the Special Branch.
He completed and submitted for publishing his second autobiography titled Heroes of the Struggle (The Forgotten Bastards) which is a sequel to Dancing With Hyenas.
This novel reveals his deep involvement but clandestine underground activism; his numerous close shaves with death, all told in first place narration.
He initiated voluntary poetry workshops that catered for learners in his neighboring municipal library in Zwide township.
With the support of the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan main library, Mahola (assisted by Yvonne Skinner) managed to publish Umthombo (The Fountain), a magazine for his workshop participants.