By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Barry Ronge and Albertus van Dijk. Photo Credit:STLitawards.
Filmcritic Barry Ronge has died peacefully at the age of 74. He was one of South Africa’s most loved movie critics.
Ronge retired from public life in 2014 and spent the last few years in seclusion in his beloved garden sanctuary in Johannesburg.
He completed his studies at the University of the Witwatersrand, where he wrote film reviews for the student newspaper. He began his teaching career at St John’s College in Johannesburg, teaching both English and Afrikaans, followed by a 10-year stint as a lecturer in literature at the University of the Witwatersrand.
As a journalist specialising in the arts, he commented on contemporary literature, theatre, dance, culture and film for over three decades, often helping to catapult SA performers’ careers.
In the late 1980s he was the food critic for the now-defunct Sunday Times Metro supplement, writing Barry’s Bites, and was Sandton Living magazine’s feared food critic under the pseudonym Ms Rebecca Parker.
From 1994/95, he wrote a weekly column in the Star Tonight! Arts supplement, Ronge’s Writes. He was the first male journalist on the Women’s Page of The Star newspaper from 1980 to 1982, reporting on social, health and wellbeing and the arts. He was also editor of the Star Tonight!
His accolades include being awarded a British Tourism Certificate for contribution to the English Language and Culture in 2003, and the 2005 English Academy SA’s Pringle Award for reviews and contribution to the English Language.