Zoleka Helesi

Zoleka Helesi (1972-2020) was a theatre administrator and an award-winning actress.

Colloquially known as MaZo

Biography

Born Zoleka Caroline Helesi on 26 February 1972 in Mdantsane, a large township between King Williamstown and East London, and in 1998 would go on to study theatre at the Community Arts Project (CAP) in Cape Town. From there she would move on to become a central figure in Western Cape and South African theatre as actress and organiser.

Tragically, Helesi succumbed to cervical and lung cancer on 11 December 2020, leaving one son, Lazola. She was but 48 years old. S

Contribution to South African Theatre, Film, Media and Performance

At CAP she honed her organisational skills and went on to become the project director of the Iliso Theatre Company in Khayelitsha, and ultimately became the co-founder and co-coordinator of the Baxter Theatre's Zabalaza Theatre Festival (2011-2020)

As an actress she was described by internationally renowned Yaël Farber as a "rare, fierce artist," with "soft burning eyes, a proudly raised chin, and a singing voice that could awaken the spirits", and in the words of Robyn Sassen, "Helesi, as a performer, was endowed with the depth of focus that could take a supporting role in a work and render it with such care, grace and empathy that it became the glue that bound the whole production together."[1].

Her range of roles over the years included seminal roles in such admired works as Brett Bailey's iMumbo Jumbo (1997), The House of the Holy Afro (2004), Yaël Farber's Mies Julie (playing "Christine", 2012), Peter Weiss's Marat/Sade (directed by Jaco Bouwer, 2016),

But her litany of works performed is long, ranging from Marc Lottering’s Auntie Merle, it’s a Girl, to Foot’s Woyzeck. Not partial to safe spaces, similar to Jaco Bouwer, the director of the Peter Weiss play Marat/Sade in which she performed 2016, Helesi had cut her theatre teeth in Brett Bailey’s controversial First World Bun Fight company, and performed in his iMumbo Jumbo in 1997 and The House of the Holy Afro from 2004.

As a director she did the childrens theatre piece Memories by Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi, Scrooge (2013) and Ambabali Ethu (2015).

Her passionate belief in the value of children’s theatre was not just about making the works, however. Helesi was almost single-handedly responsible for making the theatre environment friendly for very young visitors. Believing completely in how the reality of theatre touches young sensibilities and plants “seeds” in them, she gave her all in to make it possible for literally thousands of children to discover the hallowed space of the Baxter Theatre, in Cape Town.

and it was where she had the opportunity with the Zabalaza Festival – one of the Baxter’s pillars – now in its eighth year, to give community theatre a powerful boost. The idiom of community theatre carries a veneer of perceived amateurism among elites.

Under Helesi’s hand, the work that came through Zabalaza was strong and gritty, startling and brave, superseding all stereotypes. One of the founding co-ordinators of this festival which was an iteration of the Ikhwezi Theatre Festival, Helesi didn’t soften what being a professional on stage means. She didn’t make it easier for would be performers. But she did make the access points possible; she did listen to others with her whole being and she was recognised – and will be remembered – for her ability to “give the best hugs”. Indeed, she was a person onstage and backstage who people loved with all their hearts, because of the courage she gave them as they confronted their biggest dreams.

Said Foot in a moving tribute to her: “I feel like a small part of my soul has died with her, and a terrific era at the Baxter Theatre has now ended and I can only hope and pray that the memory of her indomitable spirit will heal all who loved her so very much.” These sentiments are deeply concurred by performer Chuma Sopotela with whom she worked in the award-winning Karoo Moose, a production by Lara Foot which effectively set established South African theatre values on their heads, and redefined the possibilities of theatre with bold wisdom.

Helesi lost her brother ‘Pankie’ earlier this year. She leaves her son, Lazola, and her sisters, Tembisa Helesi, Xoliswa Vellem Mntuwomlambo, Zaza Vellem, Akhanye Nomawethu Mahala and Nombini Margaret Helesi and their families, as well as a completely devastated Western Cape theatre fraternity. She was the kind of individual whose empathy had the power to spill beyond the borders of restraint, and she touched the lives of so many professionals, dreamers and audience members with her guttural energy, husky laugh and penchant for gossip, unequivocal beauty, poise and never-ending empathy and courage to be.

Sources

Cape theatre’s gentle ‘lion’: RIP MaZo BY ROBYN SASSEN ON DECEMBER 17, 2020[2]