Ntshona attended Newell High School in Port Elizabeth, where he met long time collaborator and South African acting legend John Kani.
[2] Reputation of their work grew over time, and Winston Ntshona had to quit his job at the timber factory, becoming an employee of The Serpent Players.
Ntshona and Kani were co-winners of the Tony Award for Best Actor in a play for their performance in both The Island and Sizwe Banzi Is Dead, which he also co-wrote.
The Serpent Players returned to South Africa in 1976 and began to tour both Sizwe Banzi is Dead and The Island in rural areas around the country, where they also conducted acting workshops.
He also played a similar role in The Dogs of War (1980) as Dr. Okoye, a moderate political figure thrown in jail by the dictator President Kimba of the fictional Republic of Zangaro.
[citation needed] In October 1976 Ntshona and Kani were arrested and thrown into solitary confinement for 15 days by the then Transkei government.
They were held under the Transkei's Proclamation R.400, because Matanzima believed the play Sizwe Banzi Is Dead had 'inflammable, abusive and vulgar subject matter'.