Joe Mafela by Joe Mafela

Joe "Sdumo" Mafela (25 June 1942 – 18 March 2017) was a South African actor, writer, producer, director, singer, and businessman.

Mafela was born in Sibasa, Transvaal, South Africa, and brought up in Kliptown and White City Jabavu, in Soweto, near Johannesburg, and then his family remained until 1990 in the Tshiawelo Township that had been set aside for Venda people under Apartheid. He began acting in movies at the age of twenty-two. He joined the South African film company SA Films, and over the following 20 years, he worked as a producer and director as well as a film actor. He also managed the multi-ethnic dance troupes Mzumba, Sangoma, and the Gold Reef Dancers, which performed in feature films, theaters, and hotels and appeared on four continents. In 1974 Mafela co-starred in the first all-black movie made in South Africa, as Peter Pleasure in Udeliwe. He worked with director Peter R. Hunt (famed for the James Bond movie On Her Majesty's Secret Service) in the 1976 film Shout at the Devil.

With the advent of television in South Africa in 1976, Mafela worked almost continuously in that medium. In 1996, Gallo Records released the album Shebeleza Fela, with the popular hit "Shebeleza (Congo Mama)". It was a huge success, and "Shebeleza" was a theme song during the Africa Cup of Nations in 1996. Since then, Mafela recorded and released several other albums of Zulu-language songs.

In 2004 Mafela was awarded a special Duku Duku award for his services to the South African television industry. In 2005 he was awarded a Theatre Management of South Africa Lifetime Achievement award at the Naledi Theatre Awards.

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