Joe "Sdumo" Mafela was a South African actor, writer, producer, director, singer, and businessman.
14 Facts About Joe Mafela
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Joe Mafela began acting in movies at the age of twenty-two.
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Joe Mafela played the role of an editor in the movie, Real News.
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Joe Mafela joined the South African film company SA Films, and over the following 20 years he worked as a producer and director as well as a film actor.
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Joe Mafela managed the multi-ethnic dance troupes Mzumba, Sangoma, and the Gold Reef Dancers, which performed in feature films, theaters, and hotels and appeared on four continents.
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In 1974 Joe Mafela co-starred in the first all-black movie made in South Africa, as Peter Pleasure in Udeliwe.
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Joe Mafela worked with director Peter R Hunt in the 1976 film Shout at the Devil.
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Joe Mafela conceptualised and starred in early Chicken Licken television commercials, and authored the company's "It's good, good, good, it's good its nice" jingle during the making of a Chicken Licken commercial in 1986.
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Since then, Joe Mafela recorded and released several other albums of Zulu-language songs.
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Nonetheless, the aging Joe Mafela complained in 2012 that it was hard for him to get acting work.
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Joe Mafela said he has been told that he is "old and cold".
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Joe Mafela was in a car accident on 18 March 2017, on the M1 north of Johannesburg, where two cars were involved.
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Joe Mafela died immediately, leaving behind his wife and four children.
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Joe Mafela was laid to rest on 29 March 2017 at the Westpark Cemetery in Johannesburg.