by Thinus Ferreira
Shaleen Surtie-Richards (66) who unexpectedly died on Monday said that she openly wanted to talk about her financial troubles in one of her final TV interviews before she died and that she went through the "deepest, deepest waters" with most people and performers too ashamed to talk this struggle.
The iconic actress with a professional career stretching over 3 decades, unexpectedly died on Monday morning in a guest house in Edgemeade, Cape Town, where she just completed a few weeks of filming on a recurring role in kykNET's Arendsvlei telenovela.
President Cyril Ramaphosa on Friday approved the request for a Category 2 Special Provincial Funeral for Shaleen Surtie-Richards. Shaleen Surtie-Richards' funeral will take place on Sunday, 13 June at 14:30 at the Durbanville Memorial Park in Cape Town.
The SABC didn't respond to a media enquiry on Friday asking whether SABC News (DStv 404) would broadcast or cover it.
Newzroom Afrika (DStv 405) said that it would be covering the funeral proceedings on Sunday and that the news channel "We will be dipping in and out from 14:30 to cover it".
eNCA (DStv 403) spokesperson Sam Dube couldn't confirm whether the channel would possibly cover the funeral and said that "information on the broadcasting of Shaleen Surtie-Richard’s funeral will be shared on channel".
Known for her iconic roles like Fiela in Fiela se Kind and Nenna in Egoli, Shaleen Surtie-Richards in an interview on Hannes Aan Huis on kykNET (DStv 144) that was broadcast this week, said that she "wanted the opportunity to speak about her financial struggles openly" and that she had gone through "the deepest, deepest waters".
With the interview done inside her home, she told interviewer Hannes van Wyk that "I sat here without a cent to my name. My house - they wanted to put on the market. To tell you the truth my house was almost sold out from under me".
"I had nothing, nothing, nothing. And I thought: I'm going to talk about this. Not for people to feel sorry for me, but for people to know that a lot of us are sitting with this problem."
"People are too ashamed to say anything," Shaleen Surtie-Richards explained. "I haven't had food in my house. It was so bad there wasn't any food in the house."
She also lost her medical aid. "I couldn't pay it any further and they took it away. So at this stage I just have to pray very hard that I won't get ill because I don't even have a medical aid anymore. I have nothing. I still owe on my water as well. I mean they don't cut it otherwise I'd be there as well."
Shaleen Surtie-Richards explained how work had dried up for a year. "You're paid according to the productions that you do. And if there isn't a production, there isn't money."
"I'm sitting here with a million awards behind my name that now absolutely means nothing to me."
Called the industry's "darkest secret", South African performers are still not receiving residuals for rebroadcasts of their TV and film work like what happens in other countries, with president Cyril Ramaphosa that after 15 months refused to sign the long-stalled Performers Protection Amendment Bill that has now been referred back to South Africa's National Assembly.
