John Matshikiza

John Matshikiza (1950-2008) Director, actor, journalist.

Biography

He was the son of Todd Matshikiza. The family moved to London in May 1960 and to Zambia in December 1963.

SA actor and journalist John Matshikiza, 54, died in Johannesburg in September following a heart attack. He had spent much of his life in exile but returned to SA in 1991.

Training

He graduated from the university of Zambia and continued his studies in the United Kingdom.

Career

On his return to South Africa he worked as a journalist for the controversial newspaper The Mail and Guardian

Contribution to SA theatre, film, media and/or performance

He directed Prophets in the Black Sky (1992), Julius Caesar at the Windybrow in 1994.

He had a role in Nongogo (2006),

He was seen in SABC3's Hard Copy shortly before his death.

He wrote the plays Prophets in the Black Sky, The Kings' Hunch,

He played the lead in the film 'There's a Zulu on my Stoep', 1994.

The second half of With the Lid Off: South African Insights from Home and Abroad 1959-2000, by Todd Matshikiza and John Matshikiza, a book published by Mail and Guardian Books in 2001, is a collection of John Matshikiza's columns in Mail and Guardian.

Sources

Tucker, 1997. 536.

Tribute written by Aggrey Klaaste published in the Sowetan, 6 September 1999.

Weekend Post, 27 December 2008.

Various entries in the NELM catalogue.

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