Ngqawana started playing flute at the age of 21, eventually becoming proficient on alto, tenor and baritone saxophone as well. He dropped out of school prior to meeting university entrance requirements but won entrance to a place at Rhodes University.
He was offered scholarship to the Max Roach/Wynton Marsalis jazz workshop and later a scholarship to the University of Massachusetts Amherst where he studied with jazz musicians Archie Shepp and Yusuf Lateef.
After his return to South Africa in the 1990’s Ngqawana worked with South African jazz musicians Hugh Masekela and Abdullah Ibrahim .
He performed a duet with poet Lefifi Tladi in the documentary Giant Steps (2005), directed by Geoff Mphakati and Aryan Kaganof.
In January 2010, Ngqawana’s Zimology Institute was vandalized by scrap metal thieves. He performed a duet concert in the rubble of the vandalized building with Cape Town pianist Kyle Shepherd. This performance was filmed as The Exhibition Of Vandalizimiop by Aryan Kaganof. The Vandalism concerts were subsequently performed at the MOMO Gallery in Johannesburg and at a scrapyard in Stellenbosch, organized by Stellenbosch University’s music department and DOMUS.
Ngqawana suffered from stroke during a rehearsal and was taken to Helen Joseph hospital and succumbed from bleeding on the brain. He is survived by his wife and five children.