WeeklySA_Adminprofile:Local entertainment world mourns
It is clear that the celestial casting director still focusing on acting field these days.
These was the profound remark and lament of cultural activist Mabutho “Kid” Sithole responding to the deaths of stage, television and movie actors Sharlee Surtie Richards and Stephen Mofokeng.
Sithole, who had appeared together with Surtie-Richards in Leon Schuster’s funny flick, Panic Mechanic, said this week that: “Last Sunday, versatile artist Sharlee Surtie Richards was given a collectively emotional send-off after she had passed on while working on a new artistic project. And the local arts world’s tears had hardly dried when, just a few days later, another performing arts practitioner of note, Stephen Mofokeng, also passed away. It is clear that the celestial casting director still focusing on acting field these days.”
His daughter, Neo Kefilwe Matlhaku told Weekly SA Mirror this week tgat Mofokeng had died after a short illness last Wednesday, aged 72. Mofokeng was born at Masakeng in Pimville, Soweto. He first attended school at the local Thaba Tshehla and Marang Lower Primary Schools and later matriculated at Naledi High School in Naledi, also in Soweto.
After he had tried his hand at boxing and tested his vocal chords as an aspirant singer, Mofokeng chose acting and subsequently featured in top sixties musicals Meropa and Ipi Tombi. At the time of his untimely passing, Mofokeng had appeared in fifteen soapies, including Generations and Isidingo, and in the drama, The Queen. He had appeared in more than ten international movies, including State Enemy Number One and Letters of Hope.
Mofokeng, who was never married, is survived by his mother, Maria Mofokeng and three sisters, and leaves five children. He was buried in Lenasia, southj of Soweto, yesterday.
