South Africans bear in mind performing ‘icon’ who died age 40

South Africans are paying tribute to actor Presley Chweneyagae, who has died on the age of 40.

His household stated he had died from pure causes after experiencing respiration issues.

Household spokesperson Mzwakhe Sigudla stated that paramedics had attended to him, however he “could not make it”.

Chweneyagae, who was born in 1984 in South Africa’s North-West Province, bought his huge worldwide break after starring within the 2005 movie Tsotsi, which earned the nation its first Oscar for finest international language movie.

Tsotsi, a robust crime movie by which Chweneyagae performs the lead function, explores gang life in a South Africa.

The movie is in Tsotsitaal, which is primarily spoken in townships and attracts on varied South African languages, in addition to English.

Talking to the BBC, South African movie critic Stephen Aspeling stated Tsotsi was a “landmark movie” which got here at a “important juncture for South Africa’s movie trade but additionally for South Africa on the worldwide platform”.

“It is looking at post-apartheid South Africa, the social inequalities, conveying poverty [and] crime in townships,” Mr Aspeling stated, outlining that earlier than Tsotsi, South Africa hadn’t featured a lot on the Oscars.

The 12 months after the movie’s launch, its director, Gavin Hood, instructed an American pupil newspaper that Chweneyagae had “by no means achieved a movie”, earlier than he scouted him for the film, highlighting that Chweneyagae himself got here from a “powerful neighborhood”.

Chweneyagae spoke about his performing approach in an interview on a South African podcast, the place he stated he favored to attract on his personal experiences.

“It is advisable to draw from your personal emotional reminiscence to make the scene extra plausible.”

He added that performing is all he had ever achieved work-wise, beginning off together with his first skilled play in 1998.

Mr Aspeling additionally highlighted Chweneyagae’s function in iNumber Quantity, a movie the place he performed a police officer, demonstrating his “versatility”.

In a press release saying his demise, his company described him as a “South African icon” and one of many nation’s “most gifted and beloved actors”.

The South African authorities revealed a put up on X describing him as “a gifted storyteller whose expertise lit up our screens and hearts”.

Chweneyagae additionally starred within the Nelson Mandela biopic Lengthy Stroll to Freedom in 2013, in addition to performing in varied theatre productions.

The South African Movie and Tv Awards described him as a “true legend of South African cinema” and a “powerhouse performer”.

The Ministry of Sports activities, Artwork and Tradition launched a press release highlighting his function within the common South African sequence River and Cobrizzi.

“The Division of Sports activities, Artwork and Tradition, mourns the lack of a real trailblazer – a storyteller who held the soul of a nation in his craft,” Tradition Minister Gayton McKenzie stated within the assertion.