M’sane’s talent in spotlight

YOUTHS from Mdantsane and Duncan Village will show off their talents this weekend at the Phaphama Cultural Festival at the NU10 Community Hall.

Event organiser, Nomathamsanqa Ngoma, of Team Community Development Centre (TCDC), said this year’s festival would attract more than 200 participants.

“TCDC was established in the year 2010 with the aim of developing our communities more by using the power of arts as a mechanism to deal with the fundamental challenges that are facing our community at large.

“The youth will be competing amongst one another on the following genres in terms of arts and culture poetry, dance, drama and music,” she said.

Ngoma said through the event they hope to revive and restore cultural values, customs and developing artistic skills in storytelling, acting, dance, poetry and music.

“We strongly believe that for a person to know where he is going, it is determined by understanding where one is coming from.

“Culture is a powerful weapon to groom a child and shaping the young ones is as good as shaping the future of the country. The restoration of our cultural values will result in the rise of a prosperous SA,” she said, adding that they hoped through such initiatives to reduce the rise of crimes as well as drug abuse in schools and our communities.

While last year’s inaugural festival had a number of glitches, Ngoma said they have spent enough time to ensure that things run smooth at the weekend.

She said the two-day event would not only see artists sharing their work but they would also be awarding the outstanding performers on Sunday evening.

“Drama winners will be taken to the National Arts Festival and also we want to partner with the Guild Theatre to give them an opportunity to perform in professional stages,” she said, and that various genres would get special prizes.