Holding a note – and it’s not a parking ticket
POLICE officers do their bit to fight crime, but these men and women in uniform have harmonious voices and know how to hold a note.
And it was with their melodious voices that they ensured yesterday morning was no ordinary shopping experience for patrons at Menlyn Park Shopping Centre in Pretoria, who listened to or watched the live performance while they went about their shopping.
The SAPS members, under the umbrella of the Police Music and Culture Association, sang, danced and had a band perform at Central Park, in Menlyn Park, as part of a crime awareness campaign.
Constable Victor Masango from the Northern Cape got the crowd screaming as he his band sang Vusi Nova’s Thandiwe.
He said music was a communication tool that everyone could easily associate with, hence they used it to communicate with the public on their crime awareness campaign.
“This is our way to make the community know about different crimes that they should not get involved in and what better way to do it than with music?
“These performances show members of the community that we are not uptight, we are just like them and that they can actually approach us whenever they have problems so that we fight crime together,” he said.
However, Masango said they did not come all the way from the Northern Cape for the crime awareness campaign, but were also in the city for the 25th Annual Police Music and Cultural Association Unity Festival.
“The performance is also a sneak peek at what could be expected from our band at the unity festival,” he said.
The festival seeks to showcase the SAPS’s rich diversity in song with members from all nine provinces. Participating members declared the competition the “Battle of the Best”.
Looking forward to the competition was Cetyiswa Yaphi, also from the Eastern Cape, who said their choir was more than ready.
“We are defending champions and we are not about to let go of the title because it suits us well,” she said with a laugh.
She said of all the songs they would sing, she loved Bhekani uTambo from their Own Choice category.
She said: “We chose this song because we want to be relevant as it is the year of Oliver Tambo and he is from our province so we want to take the trophy home and make our province proud.”
The festival kick-starts today until Saturday at Heartfelt Music Arena with different competition categories such as choral music, ballroom dancing, traditional dancing, cookery displays and cultural exhibitions.