Patrick Shai, who reportedly took his own life last week, was an award-winning actor who for proved four decades to have been blessed with unquestionable talent. He delighted theatre lovers and television viewers in several memorable roles, including the films Taxi to Soweto (1991), Fools (1997) and the musical, Baby Come Duze (1992).
Born Patrick Molefe Shai on December 9 1956 in Sophiatown, Johannesburg, he was raised in Meadowlands, after the forced removals in 1955.
Like many youngsters of his era, he fell under the spell of the cinema – the bioscope in the preferred township parlance.
For him the popular destination for the bioscope was the Lily Cinema in Meadowlands Zone 2, once a majestic venue but now a forgotten, derelict structure surrounded by shacks.
One of the first films that he watched there in the early seventies was The Ten Gladiators (1963), an Italian action movie that depicts a mortal struggle for power during the time of imperial Rome.
With a tickey – two-and-a-half cents – usually pinched from seemingly unsuspecting mothers, one could buy a movie ticket, a packet of chips and two slices.
As fate would have it, in 1986, theatre director Malcolm Purkey and his Junction Avenue Theatre Company staged the play Sophiatown at the Market Theatre.
The production revived on stage the legendary multicultural community that became famous for its writers, jazz singers, beauty queens and other colourful characters of the era.
Shai was cast in the role of Jakes, a hard-boiled hack and dandy who charmed theatre audiences with his swagger, style and charisma – the highflying and adventurous art critic and man-about-town who shows apartheid the middle finger by bringing a Jewish girl, Ruth Golden (played by Minky Schlesinger) to Kofifi.
Though at the time he was a relative greenhorn in stage acting, he put in an awesome performance alongside accomplished colleagues such as Ramolao Makhene (Fahfee) and Arthur Molepo (Mingus the gangster).
The moving and memorable monologues he delivered during the opening and closing of the performance are rated among the finest in contemporary SA theatre.
Shai started his artistic journey in 1977 as a dancer in a stage musical titled Mzumba, written, produced and directed by Solomon Gundana – now one of the forgotten pioneers of the creative sector. A number of the cast members would later become household names in the local and international entertainment world.
These included Joe Mafela, Connie Chiume, Joyce Skefu, Joe Seakatsie, Jimmy Sabe, Luckyboy Mtshali and June Buthelezi.
Dressed in traditional African costumes, the Mzumba cast was a cultural group of performers who narrated indigenous folk tales in the tradition of earlier productions such as Ipi Tombi and Meropa.
They regularly performed for tourists at Heia Safari Ranch, north of Johannesburg. He would later recall that his weekly R4.50 salary was eventually upgraded to R7 – not bad remuneration for a 21-year-old in the seventies.
The next decade witnessed the introduction of African-language channels and an opportunity for black actors to showcase their skills on the small screen.
His first gig on the small screen was in a one-hour television film titled Jason Modjadji: Soccer Star, based on a novel of the same title by SA writer Peter Brink and directed by Angus Gibson – a prominent filmmaker who is credited with a number of groundbreaking television productions and documentaries such as Heartlines, Soweto – A History and Yizo Yizo.
The book, about the adventures of a young footballer with big dreams to make it in the world of professional football was also a school set work.
Shai’s role as an unscrupulous club owner involved in the murky business of match-fixing earned him a Star Tonight! Award for best supporting actor.
His next film role was in Place of Weeping (1986), in which he played Lucky, a young freedom fighter whose anti-apartheid politics were partly inspired by the indignities and brutalities of farm labour.
Though Shai’s character only appears for 10 minutes, with a 10-second close-up, it is a role that defines the movie.
Lucky is a poignant illustration that it’s not how big a part one plays but how an actor can use the limited allocated time to leave a lasting impression on audiences.
Directed by Darrell Roodt of Mapantsula (1988) fame, the film is another forgotten SA cultural gem that deserves to grace our screens with its impeccable acting and important history lessons about our painful past.
The country’s stringent censorship laws during the dark days of apartheid and the state of emergency meant that despite the international success it enjoyed, at home Place of Weeping became a forbidden item.
Ironically, Shai’s star was on the rise after his casting as lead actor in the Pedi drama series, Bophelo Ke Semphekgo (Life’s a Rollercoaster), written by Anthony Thobejane and starring Lydia Mokgokoloshi (Mma Nkwesheng), Nakedi Ribane (Senthaolele), Rinkie Tleane (Matete), Timothy Sebati and Sello Maake Ka Ncube.
Shai’s character of Nkwesheng, a spoilt brat and Casanova, has since become one of the most celebrated in the history of television dramas. The role earned him cult status.
Though he was replaced by Seputla Sebogodi after one or two seasons, probably due to his theatre commitments at the time, Nkwesheng was a career-defining role.
Nkwesheng’s shameless infidelity and devil-may-care lifestyle of heavy drinking was a classic case of spousal abuse.
A few years later he would be cast in a similar role as an abusive husband in the Soul City series, a case of art imitating life.
Apparently, it was a role that forced him into introspection about his abusive ways in real life and set him on a path of being an activist against spousal abuse and domestic violence.
According to his wife, Masechaba, Shai’s activism was not an act but a crusade that came from a genuine space of deep remorse and sorrow for years of ill-treating her.
Through the Khuluma Ndoda (Speak Up, Man) campaign he was determined to make amends and inspire other men to become exemplary partners and good role models for boys.
He had the voice, platform and charisma to make a difference but fate played its hand.
Last year, he was shot 11 times with rubber bullets by police in his Dobsonville, Soweto neighbourhood, during a confrontation between police and residents protesting over electricity.
He was trying to make peace between the two warring parties.
He sustained near-fatal wounds in the neck, back, legs and arms and decided to open a complaint of police brutality with the Independent Police Directorate.
At the time of his passing, Shai was still waiting for justice to be served.
He’s survived by Mmadira Violet Shai (nee Mathibe), his wife for almost 40 years and fondly known as Masechaba; four children, four grandchildren and four siblings.
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