Latest news with #AvumileQongqo
SowetanLIVE
08-08-2025
- Entertainment
- SowetanLIVE
Avumile Qongqo - The queen of indie films
Avumile Qongqo is basking in the glory of the success of The Last Ranger — Mzansi's first Oscar-nominated film since Tsotsi won almost 20 years ago. Nobody saw the gritty Cindy Lee-directed short film coming until it was became an Oscars sleeper when the 97th annual Academy Award nominations were announced on 23 January. Just like that, lead star Qongqo's career took a turn, with her making waves as the queen of local indie films. Qongqo is no newbie, although she humbly refers to herself as a 'film novice'. Much like her indie film's sleeper hit status, she has had a long and quiet showbiz career, making a number of U-turns on her way to the Oscars. In the early 2000s, she was a model muse and mannequin strutting the runway for top SA designers. She quickly found Miss SA fame, as first princess in 2005 (Nokuthula Sithole won) and again in 2007 (Tansey Coetzee won). Then, in the early 2010s, she ventured into broadcast journalism as news anchor on ANN7.
SowetanLIVE
07-08-2025
- Entertainment
- SowetanLIVE
Editor's letter: A true kindred creative spirit
The first time I met Avumile Qongqo — Our 2025 Woman of the Year in Fashion & Beauty and the lead star of the Oscar-nominated The Last Ranger — on the set of her SMag cover shoot, I knew immediately that I had met a true kindred creative spirit. On a freezing winter's day at the beginning of July, she hardly said a word to me, but she brought threads of small warmth — a soft, comfy delight. A woman of a few words, she expresses herself without needing to say much. Almost a week later, on the phone, over my morning cup of coffee (with a toasted peanut-butter and apricot-jam sandwich) we reconnect for a lengthy, passionate conversation focused on her being a master of reinvention. That serene charm and warmth emerge once again and leave my nervous system completely at ease. At the end, Qongqo offers me wise words filled with gems of insight, inspiration, and observation. 'Thank you for having an eye and being intentional about observing the industry and being curious about people,' Qongqo tells me, before we wrap it up almost an hour later. Wry and luminous in my response, I try to use humour to mask my discomfort. 'I'm not necessarily in the spotlight,' Qongqo continues, not falling for my digression. 'I like that you can be curious enough to say, 'What is she about? What does she do?' And then going as far as to read and understand who she is about. So I do appreciate that your involvement in the industry really isn't about putting yourself on the pedestal but more about growing the industry, enriching it, and seeing value in things people might easily pass. I like that you have the type of curiosity that has depth and your curiosity then leads to other people having access to information or people they would not have cared about. The fact that you care and are curious is an invitation to my world.'
