South Africa: President Cyril Ramaphosa pays tribute to Athol Fugard
President Cyril Ramaphosa has lauded the late dramatist, novelist and actor Athol Fugard as 'an extraordinary storyteller in extraordinary times, and the moral conscience of a generation.'
Fugard passed away on Sunday, 9 March 2025 at the age of 93.
'Beyond the impressive body of work that he has left behind, Athol Fugard will be remembered for being an outlier amongst the millions of white South Africans who blithely turned a blind eye to the injustices being perpetrated in their name,' President Ramaphosa said.
In the late 1950s Fugard worked as a clerk in the Native Commissioner's Court in Johannesburg, which would significantly impact his world-view and shape his political consciousness.
He was renowned for collaborating across the racial divide at a time when the mixing of the races was forbidden, and founded several theatre companies alongside black actors.
Fugard's body of works include the plays No Good Friday, The Blood Knot, Master Harold and the Boys, and Sizwe Bansi is Dead.
His 1980 novel Tsotsi was adapted for film by the director Gavin Hood and won an Academy Award in 2005.
In his play, The Island, co-written with theatre legends Winston Ntshona and John Kani, the cruelty and dehumanisation wrought by apartheid was laid bare in the starkest terms on a naked floor replicating a prison cell on Robben Island.
In 1985 Athol Fugard was celebrated by Time magazine as the greatest active playwright in the English-speaking world. He used this influential voice to rouse the consciences of international audiences in support of the anti-apartheid struggle 'As a country we are grateful that we were able to honour the legendary Athol Fugard during his lifetime with the National Order of Ikhamanga in Silver,' President Ramaphosa said.
'The Fugard Theatre in District Six in Cape Town stands as a fitting tribute to a man whose life and works have left an indelible footprint, and that will continue to inspire generations of creative professionals for time to come,' the President added.
Distributed by APO Group on behalf of The Presidency of the Republic of South Africa.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Zawya
10-03-2025
- Zawya
South Africa: President Cyril Ramaphosa pays tribute to Athol Fugard
President Cyril Ramaphosa has lauded the late dramatist, novelist and actor Athol Fugard as 'an extraordinary storyteller in extraordinary times, and the moral conscience of a generation.' Fugard passed away on Sunday, 9 March 2025 at the age of 93. 'Beyond the impressive body of work that he has left behind, Athol Fugard will be remembered for being an outlier amongst the millions of white South Africans who blithely turned a blind eye to the injustices being perpetrated in their name,' President Ramaphosa said. In the late 1950s Fugard worked as a clerk in the Native Commissioner's Court in Johannesburg, which would significantly impact his world-view and shape his political consciousness. He was renowned for collaborating across the racial divide at a time when the mixing of the races was forbidden, and founded several theatre companies alongside black actors. Fugard's body of works include the plays No Good Friday, The Blood Knot, Master Harold and the Boys, and Sizwe Bansi is Dead. His 1980 novel Tsotsi was adapted for film by the director Gavin Hood and won an Academy Award in 2005. In his play, The Island, co-written with theatre legends Winston Ntshona and John Kani, the cruelty and dehumanisation wrought by apartheid was laid bare in the starkest terms on a naked floor replicating a prison cell on Robben Island. In 1985 Athol Fugard was celebrated by Time magazine as the greatest active playwright in the English-speaking world. He used this influential voice to rouse the consciences of international audiences in support of the anti-apartheid struggle 'As a country we are grateful that we were able to honour the legendary Athol Fugard during his lifetime with the National Order of Ikhamanga in Silver,' President Ramaphosa said. 'The Fugard Theatre in District Six in Cape Town stands as a fitting tribute to a man whose life and works have left an indelible footprint, and that will continue to inspire generations of creative professionals for time to come,' the President added. Distributed by APO Group on behalf of The Presidency of the Republic of South Africa.
Broadcast Pro
12-12-2024
- Broadcast Pro
MAD Solutions awards distribution grant worth $50,000 to ‘Do Re Mimi'
MAD Solutions has awarded the grant for the fourth consecutive year, underscoring its commitment to support Arab cinema. MAD Solutions has awarded its annual distribution grant, worth $50,000, to Fatima Al-Banawi's Do Re Mimi. The company made the announcement at the Red Sea Souk taking place at the Red Sea International Film Festival (RSIFF). MAD Solutions has awarded the grant for the fourth consecutive year, underscoring its commitment to support Arab cinema. Written and directed by Al-Banawi and produced by Jawaher Alamri, Do Re Mimi follows the story of a supportive Quran teacher as she helps a bullied 10-year-old unleash her voice, discovering she's a musical genius in the process. Al-Banawi is a renowned Saudi actress, writer, and director who founded the production house Alf Wad and authored a book titled 'The Other Story'. She rose to prominence with her film Barakah Meets Barakah. bringing a classic Saudi tale to the big screen. She is also on Time Magazine's Next Generation Leaders List.
Gulf News
12-12-2024
- Gulf News
Maye Musk: The flamboyant mother of the richest man on earth
Perhaps being the mother of Elon Musk should be the last thing that Maye Musk, born Halderman, should be known for. But fate sure had other ideas. However, Maye Musk is not your everyday celebrity mum. She is a force of nature in her own merit. A dietician and model for five decades, this 76-year-old mother of three enterprising children has fought ageism in fashion and made grey hair a trend in the fashion world. Along the way, she has to her credit many bold campaigns, including a nude cover for Time magazine at the age of 62 and another one (with a fake belly to promote pregnancy in advanced age) in New York magazine in 2011. Maye also has the distinction of being the oldest to appear on the swimsuit edition of Sports Illustrated at 74. The only plus-size model in South Africa in the 1970s, she is a double master's degree holder in dietetics and nutritional science. Born in 1948 in Saskatchewan, Canada to maverick but enterprising parents, Maye Halderman's life was anything but ordinary. The Halderman family moved to South Africa in the early 1950s and Maye grew up and lived a significant part of her life in the favourable environs of apartheid South Africa. The family flew around the world in a propeller plane in the 1950s and one of the things she mentions in her autobiography is this adventurous spirit. Her father Dr Joshua Norman Halderman was also an amateur archaeologist. The family's other obsession was the search for the Lost City of Kalahari. They spend over 10 years in this pursuit. She was fond of fashion and her mother told her to do pattern cutting of dresses, Maye said in an interview. She started modelling when she was 15 and at the age of 21, she was a finalist in the Miss South Africa beauty pageant, in 1969. 'When I was 15, my mum's best friend had a modelling school and she gave me a free modelling course and I started being booked for jobs. When I was 20, my friend entered me for a beauty competition and I became a finalist for Miss South Africa. I was doing my B.S. in Dietetics,' she said in an interview with The Cut in 2016. In 1970, Maye Halderman married Errol Graham Musk, a South African engineer. They had three children in three years- Elon, Kimbal and Tosca. However, the marriage was far from ideal. In her autobiography, A Woman Makes a Plan: Advice for a Lifetime of Adventure, Beauty, and Success, Maye describes Errol as a violent man and an abusive husband. There was even an incident in which she was forced to seek refuge in a friend's house and Errol turned up with a knife, in pursuit of her. Maye moved to Durban from Pretoria, with her children, to be away from her husband. At the age of 31, she was suddenly a single mum with three children to take care of. They were divorced in 1979. She started a dietician practice from home and a part-time modelling job. She had another struggle in the pipeline. After years of being a careful eater, she started eating everything and gained as much as 40 pounds, in no time. She hit plus-size at the age of 32 years and became a popular model for that. However, it was very hard for a dietitian to accept being a plus-size model. She decided to reverse it, ate perfectly and dropped 40 pounds to get back to size 6 in a year. During this phase, money was just enough to make ends meet, but family life was peaceful again, she notes in her memoir. 'We'd buy second-hand clothes. We couldn't afford to go out and eat. I fed them peanut butter sandwiches. My kids loved it! They didn't know they were deprived,' she said. Maye's troubles didn't end easily. There was a fierce battle for the custody of the children. 'He (Errol) had different things to sue me about every year. Within one week after every trial, I'd receive a subpoena for the next one. It just never stopped,' Maye was quoted in an interview. Two years after their divorce, Elon decided to move in with his father - because he had a set of Encyclopedia Britannica and a computer, luxuries Maye couldn't provide. Soon Kimbal followed his brother. Maye moved from Durban to Bloemfontein for her hospital internship and then to Johannesburg to be near her family. Things took a definitive turn when Elon finished graduate school and decided to pursue his degree in Canada, the birthplace of his mother. Maye followed Elon to Canada with her daughter Tosca and by 1989 all her children were back in Canada. She was 41. In 1996, at the age of 48, she moved to San Francisco as her children had graduated and wanted her to come to the USA. Two years later she moved to Manhattan and continued her practice and modeling career then at the age of 64, she moved to Los Angeles to help her daughter Tosca with her newborn twins. She is currently based in New York from where she travels all around the globe as a model, dietician and speaker. Her modelling and career as a diet guru flourished all these years in Canada and the US. Maye stopped colouring her hair in her late 50s and it turned out to be a wonderful move for her career as a model. Her campaigns included magazine covers, billboards in Times Square and advertising campaigns for US and other international companies, including Revlon and Special K cereal. She was also featured in the Beyoncé video, Haunted. Her controversial nudes happened in 2010 (Time Health) and 2011 (New York magazine). In 2015, Maye was signed by American modeling giant IMG at age 67. She became the oldest spokesmodel for CoverGirl in 2017, at age 69. She also became the oldest swimsuit model for Sports Illustrated at 74, appearing in their annual issue in 2022. Since 2023, she making forays into the Chinese market for speaking engagements and modelling jobs. She has starred in ads and commercials promoting consumer electronics firm Oppo's popular Find X6 Pro smartphone and has partnered with handbag brand Oleada, Bloomberg has reported. She is the global ambassador of Chinese mattress brand AISE Baobao. Earlier in 2024, she walked the runway for local apparel brand JNBY in Hangzhou. Her popularity in China took off in 2020, when her memoir was published in Chinese and became especially popular with female readers. Many Chinese see her as a symbol of strong parenting and wisdom, and her bond with her son adds a tech-savviness to her image, many say. However, with Elon Musk's direct competition with Chinese EVs and his close association with president-elect Donald Trump who in turn is wowing to impose more tariffs on Chinese goods, it is interesting to see the inroads she is making in the country where most US giants fell flat. Maye Musk's journey is a testament to the power of resilience and embracing the unique path. From her early days as a model to her later success as a dietician and global spokesperson, she has defied expectations. It is a tale of personal triumph, independence, and the pursuit of self-reinvention. It is also a reminder that her legacy is not just her family's accomplishments. As she summed up in an interview, she was famous before Elon became famous.
