The South African film and theatre industry is mourning the death of award-winning prolific writer, director, and playwright Athol Fugard, who passed away yesterday at his Stellenbosch home in the Western Cape. Fugard is known for his work No Good Friday, Master Harold and the Boys, The Blood Knot, 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.

A NOTE FROM THE PRESIDENT

President Cyril Ramaphosa described him as "an extraordinary storyteller in extraordinary times and the moral conscience of a generation.' Beyond the impressive body of work that he has left behind, he said, "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. "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."

REMEMBERED

Dr John Kani said he was deeply saddened by his passing. "I am deeply saddened by the passing of my dear friend Athol Fugard. May his soul rest in eternal peace. Elder." Director James Ngcobo, who worked on Fugard's plays Nongogo and Sizwe Banzi is Dead, called his work timeless. "Maybe one day the Department of Sports, Arts, and Culture will honour him in some way for future generations to remember his work."