By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
A teacher, a guide, a mother to this nation and iconic actress Nandi Nyembe has been laid to rest at Westpark Cemetery in Johannesburg.
Nyembe passed away on Saturday, 23 August 2025, at the age of 75. Her death has prompted an outpouring of tributes from across South Africa, celebrating her legacy as a beloved actress and storyteller whose career spanned over five decades.
Respectfully known as mam’Nandi, her passing, for some, felt like losing a close relative.
A tribute jointly released by her family and the government hailed her as the “very soul of South African storytelling”.
She was “far more than an actress” but also a teacher and guide who “broke barriers” and “inspired young actors in villages and townships to dream beyond their circumstances”.
Colleagues Desmond Dube, Motlatsi Mafatshe and Thoko Ntshinga remembered her warmth, mentorship, humour and love of life during her funeral service at the Walter Sisulu Hall in Randburg.
Ntshinga has described Nyembe as a multi-talented thespian who she met back in the 1970s while she was job hunting.
Ntshinga urged artists to confront industry challenges as a collective.
“I don’t want to be talking to the government. We’ve spoken to the government, we have complained. We have asked. We have cried. I want to speak to the artists. When do we take ourselves seriously? If you feel you are going to be underpaid, don’t take the job. Our industry is a job like any other job. But why is it that we allow ourselves to be ill-treated. We need to get together. If we are in the same job and we want to do something about it as ama-artist, do it as a collective,” said Ntshinga.
Her death, after a long illness, has reignited the debate about the lack of support available to South African artists who are unable to work and has shone a spotlight on the struggle many face behind the scenes.
Nyembe was born in 1950 in Kliptown, the oldest part of Soweto – the black township just outside Johannesburg.
Her mother was an actress and tap dancer and her father was a boxer, according to the online publication Actor Spaces.
Her family moved around a lot during her childhood and as a result she grew up with “different, diverse people”, she was quoted as saying.
Her acting career began in the 1970s at the height of the apartheid era, when the state legally enforced racial segregation.
Among the television roles she was best known for was the recurring character of an HIV-positive nurse in the hospital drama Soul City. It ran from 1994 – the year of South Africa’s first democratic election and at a time when people struggled to speak about HIV/Aids, which was rapidly becoming a national crisis.
In another popular series, Yizo Yizo, she played a nurturing mother in a show that captured the raw realities of life in a South African township.
On the big screen, she captivated audiences with her role as a sangoma, or traditional healer, in the 2004 Oscar-nominated South African film Yesterday.