PRETORIA – South Africans are paying tribute to actor Presley Chweneyagae, who has died at the age of 40. His family said he had died from natural causes after experiencing breathing problems. Family spokesperson Mzwakhe Sigudla said that paramedics had attended to him, but he “couldn’t make it”. Chweneyagae, who was born in 1984 in South Africa’s North-West province, got his big international break after starring in the 2005 film Tsotsi, which earned the country its first Oscar for best foreign language film. Tsotsi, a powerful crime film in which Chweneyagae plays the lead role, explores gang life in a South Africa. The film is in a mix of different South African languages including Tsotsitaal, which is primarily spoken in townships. Speaking to the BBC, South African film critic Stephen Aspeling said Tsotsi was a “landmark film” which came at a “critical juncture for South Africa’s film industry but also for South Africa on the international platform”. “It’s taking a look at post-apartheid South Africa, the social inequalities, conveying poverty [and] crime in townships,” Mr Aspeling said, outlining that before Tsotsi, South Africa hadn’t featured much at the Oscars. The year after the film’s release, its director, Gavin Hood, told an American student newspaper that Chweneyagae had “never done a film”, before he scouted him for the movie, highlighting that Chweneyagae himself came from a “tough neighbourhood”. Chweneyagae spoke about his acting technique in an interview on a South African podcast, where he said he liked to draw on his own experiences. “You need to draw from your own emotional memory to make the scene more believable.” He added that acting is all he had ever done work-wise, starting off with his first professional play in 1998. Mr Aspeling also highlighted Chweneyagae’s role in iNumber Number, a film where he played a police officer, demonstrating his “versatility”. In a statement announcing his death, his agency described him as a “South African icon” and one of the country’s “most gifted and beloved actors”. The South African government published a post on X describing him as “a gifted storyteller whose talent lit up our screens and hearts”.
Chweneyagae also starred in the Nelson Mandela biopic Long Walk to Freedom in 2013, as well as acting in various theatre productions.
The South African Film and Television Awards described him as a “true legend of South African cinema” and a “powerhouse performer”.
The Ministry of Sports, Art and Culture released a statement highlighting his role in the popular South African series River and Cobrizzi.
“The Department of Sports, Art and Culture, mourns the loss of a true trailblazer – a storyteller who held the soul of a nation in his craft,” Culture Minister Gayton McKenzie said in the statement.
Speaking on the MacG podcast in 2020, Chweneyagae outlined what he hoped his legacy would be.
