Celeste Mitzi Karin Matthews (born 1961) is a South African actress, playwright, and former

City of Cape Town The City of Cape Town (; ) is a Metropolitan municipality (South Africa), metropolitan municipality that forms the metropolitan municipality (South Africa), local government of Cape Town and surrounding areas. As of 2022 it has a population of ...

local government official elected to the City Council in

2021 Like the year 2020, 2021 was also heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the emergence of multiple Variants of SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 variants. The major global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, which began at the end of 2020, continued ...

. She is best known for her roles as Gertie Cupido in kykNET & kie's ''

Arendsvlei ''Arendsvlei'' () is a South African soap opera. Featuring an almost all-Coloured cast, it premiered on 1 October 2018 as kykNET & Kie's first telenovela. It was originally intended to be a limited series spanning one year, its first season pi ...

'' (a telenovela) and Auntie Hester in David Kramer and Taliep Petersen's award-winning 2002 revival of '' District Six: The Musical'' (1987). Vincent Colby of the District Six Museum cites the musical play as the material which steered a pivotal discussion held in 1994 at the 'old church hall' in former District Six to establish a dedicated museum.

Personal life and education

Matthews was born in ''Klavier Laan'' (lit. "piano lane"), Steenberg to Anthony Alexander Matthews, a public servant, and Lorraine Ruby Gordene Mentoor. Her childhood home was opposite the Rahmaniyah Masjied (Steenberg Mosque). Matthews’ ethnic background is matrilineally Batswana and

Khoekhoen Khoikhoi ( /ˈkɔɪkɔɪ/ ''KOY-koy'') (or Khoekhoe in Namibian orthography) are the traditionally nomadic pastoralist indigenous population of South Africa. They are often grouped with the hunter-gatherer San (literally "foragers") peop ...

— descending directly from the ‘controversial’ 18th century slave, Mento(o)r van Mozambique (1792) of

Quelimane Quelimane () is a seaport in Mozambique. It is the administrative Capital (political), capital of the Zambezia Province and the province's largest city, and stands from the mouth of the Rio dos Bons Sinais (or "River of the Good Signs"). The riv ...

at Oudebosch. According to the Matthews family's oral history, her father's family are of Bantu, St. Helenian, and early Afro-American extraction. She matriculated from Rosebank's Progress College in 1992, whereafter she obtained her Teaching Diploma from Hewat Teachers Training College (1996); followed by an Advanced Certificate in Education (ACE) with a major in Science from the

University of Cape Town The University of Cape Town (UCT) (, ) is a public university, public research university in Cape Town, South Africa. Established in 1829 as the South African College, it was granted full university status in 1918, making it the oldest univer ...

(2003–2004); and completed her B.Ed.

Honours degree Honours degree has various meanings in the context of different degrees and education systems. Most commonly it refers to a variant of the undergraduate bachelor's degree containing a larger volume of material or a higher standard of study, ...

in Education Management with the

Cape Peninsula University of Technology Cape Peninsula University of Technology () is a university in Cape Town, South Africa. It is the only university of technology in the Western Cape province, and is also the largest university in the province, with over 32,000 students. It was ...

(2016). She is the second wife (1992–2010) and widow of the South African author and anti-apartheid activist,

Alf Wannenburgh Alfred John Wannenburgh III (2 December 1936 – 18 December 2010) was a South African people, South African author, journalist, conservationist, and anti-apartheid activist from Cape Town. His early political writings which began in 1961/62 ce ...

. The couple have one son. While enrolled at Hewat, she joined the Belhar Players in 1995.

Awards

In 1999, she won a Fleur du Cap Theatre Award for 'Best Supporting Actress' as 'Sophie' in Heinrich Reisenhofer's ''Suip!'' (lit. "drink!") and received a First National Bank (FNB) Vita Award nomination for the same role in early 2000. The play and cast also won an additional Fleur du Cap Award for 'Best New Indigenous Script' (1999) that same evening.

Political career

Matthews participated in the

2021 South African municipal elections The 2021 South African Municipal Elections were held on 1 November 2021, to elect councils for all district, metropolitan and local municipalities in each of the country's nine provinces. It was the 6th municipal election cycle held in South Af ...

as a candidate for Minister Patricia de Lille's

Good party The Good Party (Turkish language, Turkish: ''İYİ Parti'') is a Turkish nationalism, nationalist, Kemalism, Kemalist and Conservatism, conservative List of political parties in Turkey, political party in Turkey, established on 25 October 2017 b ...

and subsequently joined the

Cape Town City Council The City of Cape Town (; ) is a metropolitan municipality that forms the local government of Cape Town and surrounding areas. As of 2022 it has a population of 4,772,846. History Cape Town first received local self-government in 1839, wit ...

as a proportional representative (PR) municipal

councillor A councillor, alternatively councilman, councilwoman, councilperson, or council member, is someone who sits on, votes in, or is a member of, a council. This is typically an elected representative of an electoral district in a municipal or re ...

( ''raadslid'') on 9 November 2021. She is, therefore, one of the 115 PR members that make up the City Council's total membership of 231 councillors. Between 2005 and 2021, she served as a commissioner for the Western Cape Cultural Commission (WCCC), at the invitation of the then minister

Pallo Jordan Zweledinga Pallo Jordan (born 22 May 1942) is a South African politician. He was a member of the National Executive Committee of the African National Congress, and was a cabinet minister from 1994 until 2009. Early life Jordan is the son of th ...

, and as a board member and adjudicator/advisor on several departmental agencies at provincial and national levels under South Africa's Department of Sport, Arts and Culture. In May 2023, Matthews' name was published in a Provincial Gazette Extraordinary for the Western Cape as one of 17 shortlisted Good party candidates for the Provincial Parliament of the Western Cape seat that became vacant following Shaun August's controversial dismissal. Matthews separated from the Good party in October 2023, and was subsequently given a Certificate of Recognition civic award by the City of Cape Town for her contribution to Sub-council 16 and the wards that comprise it during her two years in Council (9 November 2021 to 6 October 2023).

Original plays/works

Her own plays, ''Sandra se Erfenis'' (first performed by Hewat Drama Group with a student cast at the Grahamstown Festival) — was performed with a student cast at the

Grahamstown Festival The National Arts Festival (NAF) is an annual festival of performing arts in Makhanda, South Africa. It is the largest arts festival on the African continent and one of the largest performing arts festivals in the world by visitor numbers. The ...

; and ''Sonne Skaamte'' was staged as a 'performed reading' in 2004 at the PlayGround venue at the

Baxter Theatre Centre The Baxter Theatre Centre is a performing arts complex in Rondebosch, a suburb of Cape Town, South Africa. The Baxter, as it is often known, is part of the University of Cape Town; it is also the second largest performing arts complex in Cape ...

Theatre productions

2023: ''African Gothic'' (Reza de Wet's ''Diepe Grond'') at Theatre Arts, Observatory 2018: ''Tjieng Tjang Tjerries'' at US Woordfees, Stellenbosch 2017: ''Die dans van die watermeid'' ("The dance of the water maiden") at the Baxter Theatre, Cape Town 2012: ''Saying Goodbye to Amelia'' as 'Nora' at the Catalina Theatre 2008: ''Kroes'' as 'Aunty Maggie' (presented at the 2008 ''Suidoosterfees'') at Artscape, Cape Town and Oude Libertas Amphitheatre, Stellenbosch 2007: ''Shirley, Goodness and Mercy'' at the Baxter Theatre 2006: ''Truth in Translation'' at the Market Theatre in Johannesburg (music composed by

Hugh Masekela Hugh Ramapolo Masekela (4 April 1939 – 23 January 2018) was a South African trumpeter, flugelhornist, cornetist, singer and composer who was described as "the father of South African jazz". Masekela was known for his jazz compositions and f ...

) 2005: ''The Goodbye Kiss'' at Theatre on the Bay, Camps Bay 2002: ''District Six – The Musical'' as 'Auntie Hester' at the Baxter Theatre (recording released to DVD in 2007) 2002: ''

The Vagina Monologues ''The Vagina Monologues'' is an episodic play written in 1996 by Eve Ensler which developed and premiered at HERE Arts Center, Off-Off-Broadway in New York and was followed by an Off-Broadway run at the Westside Theatre. The play explores ...

'' (directed by Dawn Lindberg pril 2002 at Caesars in Gauteng and the Baxter Theatre 1999 to 2001: ''Suip!'' as 'Sophia' (Aardklop Festival; Perth International Arts Festival 001and Octagon Theatre, Crawley, Western Australia 999? Klein Karoo Festival; Baxter Theatre; Grahamstown Festival; Opera House, Port Elizabeth; International Arts Festival, Zanzibar; Knysna Theatre) 199*/200*: ''Moenie Try Nie'' at Grahamstown Festival 1998: ''Mix Masala'' at Artscape 1994: ''Sandra se Erfenis'' at Grahamstown Festival (Rhodes Box). Written and directed by Matthews—who also played the role of "Auntie Murie"

Filmography

Awards and nominations

References

External links