President Cyril Ramaphosa has lauded the late dramatist, novelist and actor Athol Fugard as “an extraordinary storyteller in extraordinary times, and the moral conscience of a generation.” Fugard passed away on Sunday, 9 March 2025 at the age of 93.
“Beyond the impressive body of work that he has left behind, Athol Fugard will be remembered for being an outlier amongst the millions of white South Africans who blithely turned a blind eye to the injustices being perpetrated in their name,” President Ramaphosa said.
In the late 1950s Fugard worked as a clerk in the Native Commissioner’s Court in Johannesburg, which would significantly impact his world-view and shape his political consciousness. He was renowned for collaborating across the racial divide at a time when the mixing of the races was forbidden, and founded several theatre companies alongside black actors.
Fugard’s body of works include the plays No Good Friday, The Blood Knot, Master Harold and the Boys, and Sizwe Bansi is Dead. His 1980 novel Tsotsi was adapted for film by the director Gavin Hood and won an Academy Award in 2005.
In his play, The Island, co-written with theatre legends Winston Ntshona and John Kani, the cruelty and dehumanisation wrought by apartheid was laid bare in the starkest terms on a naked floor replicating a prison cell on Robben Island.
In 1985 Athol Fugard was celebrated by Time magazine as the greatest active playwright in the English-speaking world. He used this influential voice to rouse the consciences of international audiences in support of the anti-apartheid struggle “As a country we are grateful that we were able to honour the legendary Athol Fugard during his lifetime with the National Order of Ikhamanga in Silver,” President Ramaphosa said.
“The Fugard Theatre in District Six in Cape Town stands as a fitting tribute to a man whose life and works have left an indelible footprint, and that will continue to inspire generations of creative professionals for time to come,” the President added.
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