Heniel Diphete D. Bopape (born 1957) is a South African novelist, playwright and journalist.

Bopape was born in Transvaal Province

Transvaal Province

Transvaal Province was a province of the Union of South Africa from 1910 to 1961, and of its successor, the Republic of South Africa, from 1961 until the end of apartheid in 1994 when a new constitution subdivided it.-History:...

, in what today is Limpopo

Limpopo

Limpopo is the northernmost province of South Africa. The capital is Polokwane, formerly named Pietersburg. The province was formed from the northern region of Transvaal Province in 1994, and initially named Northern Transvaal...

. He graduated with a B.A. in Psychology from Unisa

University of South Africa

The University of South Africa is a distance education university, with headquarters in Pretoria, South Africa. With approximately 300 000 enrolled students, it qualifies as one of the world's mega universities.-History:...

 in 1987. At the time he was lecturing full-time at Dr. C.N. Phatudi College. He is the owner and editor of Seipone, a vernacular newspaper in Limpopo.

Lenong la Gauta (1982) pioneered the detective novel

Detective fiction

Detective fiction is a sub-genre of crime fiction and mystery fiction in which an investigator , either professional or amateur, investigates a crime, often murder.-In ancient literature:...

 genre in Sepedi

Northern Sotho language

Northern Sotho , also inaccurately known by the name of a major dialect, Pedi or sePedi, is one of the official languages of South Africa, and is spoken by 4,208,980 people — in the South African provinces of Gauteng,...

.

Works

Plays

• Makgale, Pretoria: Van Schaik, 1978

Novels

• Lenong la Gauta [A Golden Vulture], Pretoria: Van Schaik, 1982
• Dikeledi [Tears], Pretoria: Van Schaik, 1985
• Rena Magomotša, Pretoria: De Jager-HAUM, 1987

Short story collections

• Bogobe bja Tswiitswii [Porridge o fTswiitswii], Pretoria: De Jager-HAUM, 1985