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South African playwright, actor, and novelist Athol Fugard.
President Cyril Ramaphosa has lauded the late dramatist, novelist and actor Athol Fugard who passed away on Sunday at the age of 93.
The President has described him “as an extraordinary storyteller in extraordinary times and the moral conscience of a generation”.
Fugard’s world view was shaped by his time working as a clerk in the Native Commissioner’s Court in Johannesburg in the late 1950s.
Renowned theatre legend Athol Fugard dies aged 92:
He then went on to write plays such as The Island, Sizwe Banzi is Dead, No Good Friday and Master Harold and the Boys which depict the cruelty and dehumanisation wrought by the apartheid system.
He was renowned for collaborating across the colour divide at a time when this was prohibited and founded several theatre companies alongside black actors.
Presidential spokesperson Vincent Magwenya says, “Beyond the impressive body of work he left behind, Athol Fugard will be remembered as being an outlier amongst the millions of white South Africans who blithely turned a blind eye to the injustices being perpetuated in their name. As a country, we are grateful that we were able to honour the legendary Athol Fugar during his lifetime with the Order of Ikhamanga in Silver.”
