WeeklySA_AdminEXTRAORDINARY: Veteran film and TV soapie actress carved distinguished international showbiz career spanning more than four decades…
By Lehlohonolo Lehana
Arrangements for the burial of Black Panther star and veteran actress Connie Chiume, who passed away in hospital on Wednesday at the age of 72, are still to be announced.
Her family said they would share further details regarding the actress’s memorial and funeral service and thanked the public for all the messages of support and condolences during this difficult time.
Chiume died at the Garden City Hospital, in Johannesburg, on Wednesday. She was part of the movie“Black Panther”, “Gomora”, “Black is King” and “Queen Sono”.
In the early 80s, Connie started acting by playing “Thembi” in the series “Inkom’Edla Yodwa”. She later won a South African Film and Television Award (SAFTA) in 2000 under the category of Best Actress in a Drama Series.
It was a moment on local television that defined who she was today. She played Stella Moloi in SABC 1’s “Zone 14”, earning her third SAFTA. She also appeared in the Marvel Universe film “Black Panther” in 2018, alongside the late actor Chadwick Boseman, Lupita Nyong’o, and Michael B Jordan, among others.
Her acting career spanned over 45 years, during which she received numerous accolades for her contributions to the arts.
Chiume received several lifetime achievement awards, including honours at the Hollywood and African Prestigious Awards (HAPA), the 16th South African Film and Television Awards (Saftas), the Hennessy VSOP Privilège Lifetime Achievement Award from the GQ Men of the Year awards, and the Royalty Soapie Awards.
She leaves behind four adult children. News of her passing has prompted a wide array of tributes from colleagues in the acting industry, fans of her work, and supporters.
Meanwhile, Soweto Theatre has announced that it would be honouring Chiume by dedicating a star to the multi-award-winning actress during this year’s “Celebration of Our Legends”, in recognition of her extraordinary legacy.
Chiume was known for her roles in “Blessers”, “S’gudi S’nyasi”, “Yizo Yizo 2” and “Rhythm City”.
Chiume was born on 5 June 1952 in the mining town of Welkom, South Africa. Her father Wright Tadeyo Chiume was from Nkhata Bay, Malawi and her mother, MaNdlovu, hailed from KwaZulu-Natal. Her cousin, Ephraim Mganda Chiume is a Malawian politician.
Chiume spent her early childhood in Welkom. She completed her matric in the Eastern Cape and started training to become a nurse. However, she went on to graduate with a degree in teaching in 1976. In 1977, she left South Africa and became part of a touring musical group, visiting Greece and Israel with them.
Chiume began her acting career with roles in productions of “Porgy and Bess”, “Ipi Ntombi”, and “Little Shop of Horrors”. She returned to South Africa as apartheid was ending. She was cast as Thembi in the 1989 series “Inkom’ Edla Yodwa” and then the 1990 film “Warriors from Hell”. In 2000, she won the award for Best Actress in a Drama Series at the South African Film and Television Awards (SAFTA).
In 2006, she starred in the stage productions of “You Strike The Woman and You Strike The Rock”. From 2007 to 2015, she gained prominence through her role as Stella Moloi in the SABC1 drama series “Zone 14”, which earned her another SAFTA. She also received the Award for the Best Supporting Actress in a Drama during the 3rd SAFTA. In 2015, she appeared in the soap opera “Rhythm City” as Mamokete Khuse. – Additional information from Wikipedia
In 2018, she played Zawavari, the elder of a mining tribe in the Marvel Cinematic Universe film “Black Panther”. She starred in this role again in the film’s 2022 sequel Black Panther: “Wakanda Forever”.
In 2020, she landed the role of Mam’Sonto Molefe in the drama series “Gomora” and appeared in Beyoncé’s film “Black Is King”. In October 2020, she received a Feather Award nomination. In 2022, she received the lifetime achievement award at the South African Film and Television Awards.
‘SHE WILL REMAIN WOKE IN OUR DREAMS’
BELOVED: Vaal community leader and pastor Paul Njabulo Vilakazi pays homage to his long-time friend from college days in the 1970s…
By Paul N Vilakazi
My Deepest thoughts are now on Connie Chiume’s passing to join our hundreds of South African Celestial Stars.
She is my dearest friend, whom I met between 1974 and 1976 at the Wilberforce Teachers Training Institute out at Evaton in the Vaal, where she was training to be a teacher while I trained for Theology at the Richard Robert Wright Seminary.
Then Connie was the only shining songbird on the Wilberforce Campus.
She was a friend of my home girl, Charlotte, and got to know me by my pet name, Oupa, after which she called me Ouboet Oupa. All the while I didn’t realise or observe she was older than me, even if by a few months – thanks to her then juvenile-like body’s fine comportment and whole physical constitution.
She used to electrify beauty contests and other concerts with her then much-revered and self-composed ditty ‘People will talk, talk,talk…’ and had then dated my homie and friend, Kgosi.
Just after we had left the campus by 1977, she joined up with me and a music man and playwright the Rev JBM Mareka from the old Ekurhuleni location of Brakpan for my poetry recitals accompanied by their musical selves…
Later I was to meet her as a rookie actress with a baby-strapped on her back and residing in Hillbrow, Johannesburg. She had clearly left the teaching Profession and I thought had landed in a cut-throat world of meagre earnings…
She was only to rise with every rung going higher in the arts of her choice.
She was honoured by the church I had pastored in the late 80’s – the Wright AME Chapel had then honoured her alongside Selaelo Maredi, Nakedi Ribane, Japan Mthembu and Jerry Tsie, where she shared a testimony about a sermon she once heard me preach extracted from the hymn:
‘Count Your Blessing And Name Them One by One, And Remember What The Lord Has Done…’
And added that it has seen her through life and career.That added a profound blessing to my soul.
She continually blessed my oft-doubts and frailties very greatly up until September 2023, when we had last spoken about my project of “Vaal Servant-hood Hall of Fame,” for her studies at Wilberforce at Evaton in the Vaal.
It is my continued prayer that this project comes to fruition as she now rises to go through the air and join other now celestial giants whose names are engraved in the Wilberforce alumni, such as Dr Sam Motswenyane, Sir Quett Masire, Dr Hastings Kamuzu Banda, Bra Alf Khumalo, Pro Kgongwana and many other luminaries
For anybody now as an indigenous person, I never say “Rest In Peace”; as my ancestors believed “the woke among the quick are still woke beyond the ether, the noble one time here, become even novel and the more alive in our dreams”.
Your Dearest Friend.
* The Reverend Paul Njabulo Vilakazi is pastor and political commentator
