Ntuli spent many of his sabbatical leaves on research, especially in rural areas where, among other things, he collected oral literature items. He extended his activity to onomastics by collecting names of houses, homesteads and buses. In many districts in KZN he collected praise poems of amakhosi and their forebears. In many cases he had to make personal sacrifices to obtain the material he wanted. The research trips helped him to augment his already substantial knowledge of Indigenous Knowledge Systems. The information gathered was included in his publications and in scholarly articles.
He was always keen to take part in Usiba writers’ workshops to share his practical experience with prospective writers. In some instances he was asked by publishers such as Shuter & Shooter, JL van Schaik and Vivlia to accompany them to various centres including Eswatini. He still gets requests from publishers to help out with reviewing or editing manuscripts. Where he can, he does offer free help to people and students who approach him privately for guidance.
Sometimes Ntuli went beyond formal or conventional workshops. When he was Chief Examiner for the isiZulu matric literature paper, he encouraged his sub-examiners and markers to test their creative skills by attempting to produce their own books. Indeed, during his term of office his team produced two books – a collection of poems and another one of short prose, i.e. Ibandla lasentabeni and Ithungelwa ebandla, respectively. Both were edited by his senior marker, Prof. C.T. Msimang. In 2007 he was joined by a team of tutors to take workshops to the centres at Correctional Services such as Westville in KZN. The result of the endeavor was the publication of impressive poetry and prose anthologies, Ziyokwesulwa izinyembezi and Umuntu akalahlwa, respectively.
After leaving the SABC and joining Unisa, Ntuli was asked by Radio Zulu to present regular school lessons and radio talks (“Ugqozi” and, “Ezezincwadi”) on aspects of literature. This enabled him to contact many authors and record interviews with them. This created an opportunity to preserve some of the writers’ voices that would otherwise be lost for good. The audio recordings are kept at the Centre for African Literary Studies at UKZN. The material collected also helped Ntuli to start literary columns in isiZulu newspapers such as Ilanga and Isolezwe. This is where authors and their works were introduced. The visits to authors enabled him to collect authors’ memorabilia such as typewriters and original manuscripts for the Unisa literary museum.
In his quest to publish radio plays written by veterans such as K.E. Masinga and Hubert Sishi, Ntuli discovered that no scripts of their plays could be found. He spent his last sabbatical leave selecting and transcribing Sishi’s plays from tapes. A draining undertaking. The end result was the publication of Sishi’s historical plays in the book entitled Imilando yakwaZulu (Unisa, 2000). It must be pointed out that despite his involvement mentioned above, Ntuli had a full-time employment. His involvement must have encroached on what would otherwise be his spare time. He obviously made a lot of personal sacrifices for the advancement of isiZulu literature.
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