Celeste Matthews Wannenburgh

Celeste Mitzi Karin Matthews is a South African actress, playwright, and former City of Cape Town local government official elected to the City Council in 2021. She is best known for her roles as Gertie Cupido in kykNET & kie's Arendsvlei and Auntie Hester in David Kramer and Taliep Petersen's award-winning 2002 revival of District Six: The Musical. Vincent Colby of the District Six Museum cites the musical play as the material which steered a pivotal discussion held in 1994 at the 'old church hall' in former District Six to establish a dedicated museum.

Personal life and education

Matthews was born in Klavier Laan, Steenberg to Anthony Alexander Matthews, a public servant, and Lorraine Ruby Gordene Mentoor. Her childhood home was opposite the Rahmaniyah Masjied. Matthews’ ethnic background is matrilineally Batswana and Khoekhoen — descending directly from the ‘controversial’ 18th century slave, Mentor van Mozambique of Quelimane at Oudebosch. According to the Matthews family's oral history, her father's family are of Bantu, St. Helenian, and early Afro-American extraction.
She matriculated from Rosebank's Progress College in 1992, whereafter she obtained her Teaching Diploma from Hewat Teachers Training College ; followed by an Advanced Certificate in Education with a major in Science from the University of Cape Town ; and completed her B.Ed. Honours degree in Education Management with the Cape Peninsula University of Technology. She is the second wife and widow of the South African author and anti-apartheid activist, Alf Wannenburgh. The couple have one son. While enrolled at Hewat, she joined the Belhar Players in 1995.

Awards

In 1999, she won a Fleur du Cap Theatre Award for 'Best Supporting Actress' as 'Sophie' in Heinrich Reisenhofer's Suip! and received a First National Bank Vita Award nomination for the same role in early 2000. The play and cast also won an additional Fleur du Cap Award for 'Best New Indigenous Script' that same evening.

Political career

Matthews participated in the 2021 South African municipal elections as a candidate for Minister Patricia de Lille's Good party and subsequently joined the Cape Town City Council as a proportional representative municipal councillor on 9 November 2021. She is, therefore, one of the 115 PR members that make up the City Council's total membership of 231 councillors. Between 2005 and 2021, she served as a commissioner for the Western Cape Cultural Commission, at the invitation of the then minister Pallo Jordan, and as a board member and adjudicator/advisor on several departmental agencies at provincial and national levels under South Africa's Department of Sport, Arts and Culture.
In May 2023, Matthews' name was published in a Provincial Gazette Extraordinary for the Western Cape as one of 17 shortlisted Good party candidates for the Provincial Parliament of the Western Cape seat that became vacant following Shaun August's controversial dismissal. Matthews separated from the Good party in October 2023, and was subsequently given a Certificate of Recognition civic award by the City of Cape Town for her contribution to Sub-council 16 and the wards that comprise it during her two years in Council.

Original plays/works

Her own plays, Sandra se Erfenis — was performed with a student cast at the Grahamstown Festival; and Sonne Skaamte was staged as a 'performed reading' in 2004 at the PlayGround venue at the Baxter Theatre Centre.

Theatre productions

2023: African Gothic at Theatre Arts, Observatory
2018: Tjieng Tjang Tjerries at US Woordfees, Stellenbosch
2017: Die dans van die watermeid at the Baxter Theatre, Cape Town
2012: Saying Goodbye to Amelia as 'Nora' at the Catalina Theatre
2008: Kroes as 'Aunty Maggie' at Artscape, Cape Town and Oude Libertas Amphitheatre, Stellenbosch
2007: Shirley, Goodness and Mercy at the Baxter Theatre
2006: Truth in Translation at the Market Theatre in Johannesburg
2005: The Goodbye Kiss at Theatre on the Bay, Camps Bay
2002: District Six – The Musical as 'Auntie Hester' at the Baxter Theatre
2002: The Vagina Monologues at Caesars in Gauteng and the Baxter Theatre
1999 to 2001: Suip! as 'Sophia'
199*/200*: Moenie Try Nie at Grahamstown Festival
1998: Mix Masala at Artscape
1994: Sandra se Erfenis at Grahamstown Festival. Written and directed by Matthews—who also played the role of "Auntie Murie"

Awards and nominations

Year	Association	Category	Work	Result	Ref
1999	Fleur du Cap Theatre Award	Best Actress in a Supporting Role	Suip!
2000	First National Bank Vita Award	Best Actress in a Supporting Role	Suip!		-