Tsotsi star gets warm welcome
2006-03-09 14:13
Johannesburg - Families, friends and fans of Tsotsi star Terry Pheto, packed the arrivals section of the Johannesburg International Airport this morning, to welcome her back home.
Pheto was the first member of the Oscar award winning movie to jet in on Thursday from the United States, the government news agency BuaNews reports.
Tsotsi won an Oscar for best foreign language film in Los Angeles on Sunday.
"It is good to be back home, and I feel proud to be a South African. The highlight in the US was about winning the Oscar and I am very happy about the award," Pheto said amid screams of well-wishers.
Dressed in a khaki top, brown pants and matching shoes, Pheto said she also spent time "shopping" in Los Angeles.
At the prestigious Oscar Awards event she met Hollywood celebrities such as JB Fox and Will Smith.
"Well, Will Smith is a friend of South Africa, and when he took to the podium and said "Tsotsi!" everything stopped for a moment. I was very happy," said Pheto.
While filming the movie, she said, she had the feeling that it would be "big" but never thought it might win an Oscar.
Tears shed
Her mother, who lives in Rivonia Park, Vereeneging, shed tears of joy as her daughter became the centre of attention.
"I am proud of her... I do not know what to say or do," she said.
Pheto's younger sister, Dimakatso, was also at the airport.
"I am happy. She is a new comer and suddenly she is in a movie that wins an Oscar. I initially expected her to feature in a drama as a new comer, but God is great," Dimakatso said.
Another member of the cast, Bonginkosi Dlamini affectionately known as Zola, also arrived back today accompanied by South Africa's Consul General in LA, Jeanette Ndlovu.
Zola of the popular television programme, Zola 7, plays the chop-shop owner Fela in Tsotsi, but says he will not leave the show which helps South Africans overcome their challenges because it "is the foundation" of who he is.
"I will not abandon it (Zola 7). The show is about helping people and to me South Africans come first," he said.
However, he was proud of Tsotsi cast members Pesley Chweneyagae and Terry while in Hollywood, who "walked tall and were not star-struck".
Terry plays the character of Miriam, a single mother whose husband was murdered by thugs on his way home. She is harassed by tsotsi (thug) played by Presley Chweneyagae to feed an infant he found in a car he had hijacked.
Caring for the child gradually repairs Tsotsi's broken spirit.
Directed by Gavin Hood, Tsotsi is the first South African movie to win an Oscar award.
Hood and Chweneyagae are expected to return home on Sunday.