After finishing his primary and secondary education, Govender began studying at the
University of Cape Town (UCT), and took on a job as a
sportswriter for the
New Age to pay his fees. However, the newspaper was closed by the authorities one year after Govender joined. Unable to support himself in
Cape Town, he returned to Durban and entered Springfield Training College to become a teacher. In 1964, with Muthal Naidoo and Bennie Bersee, he founded a theatre company called the Shah Theatre Academy in opposition to the liberal theatre of the day. He went on to write other plays, including ''The Lahnee's Pleasure'' (1972), one of South Africa's longest-running plays. Although Govender received invitations to tour ''The Lahnee's Pleasure
abroad and in mainstream South African theatres, he refused as part of the cultural boycott of apartheid. His short story collection At the Edge and Other Cato Manor Stories'' won the 1997
Commonwealth Writers' Prize for best first book, Africa. Critics have described Govender's writing style as unadorned, and have said that his works evoke the identity of the Indian community with its vitality, humour, and resilience in a difficult environment. His works have been considered important in constructing the South African national identity. The South African government awarded him the
Order of Ikhamanga in 2008 "for [his] excellent contribution to democracy and justice in South Africa through the genre of theatre". In 2014, the
Durban University of Technology also awarded Govender an honorary doctorate "for his contribution to literature and the arts in general as well as his contribution to democracy, peace and justice in South Africa through theatre". == Personal life ==