Award-winning actor Presley Chweneyagae has died at 40 years old. Buzz Life News received the news from close friends who were devastated by the former The River actor. Presley passed in the early hours of Tuesday morning. “We cannot disclose the nature of his passing. It literally happened this morning. We are devastated.”
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Presley is best known for his starring role in the film Tsotsi, which won the Academy Award for Foreign Language Film at the 78th Academy Awards. Although he had acted before in plays and community theatre projects, Tsotsi was his first feature film. He has performed in a number of productions for North West Arts (now known as the Mmabana Arts Foundation) and appeared in A Midsummer Night’s Dream (as Puck) and in the play Cards at the Grahamstown Arts Festival.
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He made his TV acting debut in 2000 in Orlando for SABC TV. He was cast as The Poet in the 2006 mini-series When We Were Black. Presley starred for six seasons in the Mzansi Magic soapie The River as Cobra (2018-2024), and revived that character in the 13-part drama series Cobrizi, in 2025.
