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

City of Cape Town The City of Cape Town ( af, Stad Kaapstad; xh, IsiXeko saseKapa) is the metropolitan municipality which governs the city of Cape Town, South Africa and its suburbs and exurbs. As of the 2011 census, it had a population of 3,740,026. The remo ...

local government official elected to the City Council in

2021 File:2021 collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: the James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021; Protesters in Yangon, Myanmar following the 2021 Myanmar coup d'état, coup d'état; A civil demonstration against the October–November 2021 ...

. 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 Taliep Petersen (15 April 1950 – 16 December 2006) was a South African singer, composer and director of a number of popular musicals. He worked most notably with David Kramer, with whom he won an Olivier Award. Career One of "South Africa' ...

'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 The Tswana ( tn, Batswana, singular ''Motswana'') are a Bantu-speaking ethnic group native to Southern Africa. The Tswana language is a principal member of the Sotho-Tswana language group. Ethnic Tswana made up approximately 85% of the popu ...

and

Khoekhoen Khoekhoen (singular Khoekhoe) (or Khoikhoi in the former orthography; formerly also '' Hottentots''"Hottentot, n. and adj." ''OED Online'', Oxford University Press, March 2018, www.oed.com/view/Entry/88829. Accessed 13 May 2018. Citing G. S. ...

— 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 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 river was named when V ...

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) ( af, Universiteit van Kaapstad, xh, Yunibesithi ya yaseKapa) is a public research university in Cape Town, South Africa. Established in 1829 as the South African College, it was granted full university statu ...

(2003–2004); and completed her

B.Ed. A Bachelor of Education (B.Ed.) is an undergraduate professional degree which prepares students for work as a teacher in schools. In some countries such as Tanzania and Kenya, additional tasks like field work and research are required in order for ...

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, or ...

in Education Management with the

Cape Peninsula University of Technology Cape Peninsula University of Technology, a university in Cape Town, South Africa, 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 formed by ...

(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 cem ...

. 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 is the sixth municipal election held in South Afric ...

as a candidate for Minister Patricia de Lille's

Good party The Good Party ( Turkish: ''İyi Parti'') is a nationalist, national conservative, Kemalist, and liberal democrat political party in Turkey, established on 25 October 2017 by its current leader Meral Akşener. Their fraternal party is the liber ...

and subsequently joined the

Cape Town City Council The City of Cape Town ( af, Stad Kaapstad; xh, IsiXeko saseKapa) is the metropolitan municipality which governs the city of Cape Town, South Africa and its suburbs and exurbs. As of the 2011 census, it had a population of 3,740,026. The remot ...

as a proportional representative (PR) municipal

councillor A councillor is an elected representative for a local government council in some countries. Canada Due to the control that the provinces have over their municipal governments, terms that councillors serve vary from province to province. Unl ...

( ''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 Grahamstown, 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. Th ...

; 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 for ...

) 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 in at Westside Theatre. The play explores cons ...

'' (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

001 001, O01, or OO1 may refer to: *1 (number), a number, a numeral *001, fictional British agent, see 00 Agent *001, former emergency telephone number for the Norwegian fire brigade (until 1986) *AM-RB 001, the code-name for the Aston Martin Valkyrie ...

and 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