Leleti Khumalo
Leleti Khumalo became famous playing Sarafina twice. She took the lead in the stage musical and then carried it into the 1992 film, a story about Soweto schoolchildren during the revolt against apartheid education, and the role demanded singing, dancing and an enormous amount of grief from an actress right at the start of her career.
International productions used her sparingly and well. She is Fedens in Hotel Rwanda and Mary in Invictus, two films about aftermath made by directors from outside the continent, and Adelaide Tambo in Winnie Mandela. She also led Yesterday, a Zulu-language drama, which is not among the credits listed here.
Her real continuity has been South African television. She has played Nokubonga 'MaZulu' Bhengu on Imbewu: The Seed, MaNzuza on Uzalo, and Dr Ximba on Muvhango, which are the roles that made her a daily household presence at home rather than a name on an international festival poster. Four film credits is a thin sample of a career that has mostly been lived on soaps, and it is worth knowing that before reading the list as the whole story.
Movies (4)
Where to start with Leleti Khumalo
Sarafina! first, and it is not a close call. The film is uneven, she is not, and it remains the clearest record of what she could do with a role she had already owned on stage.
Hotel Rwanda is the next stop and the harder watch, with Khumalo in a supporting part in a film that never lets its supporting cast become scenery. Invictus is the gentler companion, a sports picture about a country deciding to hold together.
Winnie Mandela is the weakest of the four and still interesting for her Adelaide Tambo, who gets to be the sensible person in a story with very few of those. If you can track it down, Yesterday is the performance her admirers argue is her finest, though it is not among the credits listed here.