Ephraim Ngatane was born in Lesotho and moved to Johannesburg in 1943. He studied painting under Cecil Skotnes at the Polly Street Art Centre and he learnt watercolour technique and drawing under Durant Sihlali. Cecil Skotnes thought him to be one of the most outstanding watercolourists in the country after seeing his 1964 exhibition at the Adler Fielding Gallery. By 1966 Ngatane was working mainly in oils and was singled out at an exhibition of Black African Art at the Picacadilly Gallery in London. He suffered from tuberculosis and died in 1971 at the age of 33.