Comedy legend social activist/satirist Pieter-Dirk Uys appeared on The Money Show with Bruce Whitfield on talk radio 702 to talk about his attitude towards money (hopes and fears, successes and failures, etc.). Uys was born in Cape Town on 28 September 1945 to Hannes Uys, his Afrikaner father, and Helga Bassel, his Berlin-born Jewish mother.
His family was religious (Dutch Reformed) and his mother strongly encouraged him to embrace the Afrikaner culture. Uys is probably most well known for his character Evita Bezuidenhout (also known as Tannie Evita, Afrikaans for “Auntie Evita”), a white Afrikaner socialite and self-proclaimed political activist.
Uys made a name for himself under apartheid by using comedy to criticise and expose the absurdity of the South African government’s racial policies.
“When I started working at the theatre, R20 a week at the Space Theatre… then when I did my first one-man show, suddenly overnight, I went from R20 a week to R15 000, in 1981! That was unbelievable! My father phoned me and said ‘Pietie come home’ because he threw me out. And my joy was to support him for the rest of his life.” — Pieter-Dirk Uys
He lives in Darling in the Western Cape, where he converted an old railway station into a cabaret venue called “Evita se Perron” where he performs regularly.
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