Youth show off drama skills at cultural festival
YOUTH from Mdantsane, Duncan Village and Nxarhuni, showed off their talent at Phaphama Cultural Festival at the NU10 Community Hall in Mdantsane at the weekend.
Event organiser of the Team Community Development Centre (TCDC), Nomathamsanqa Ngoma, said the purpose of the festival was to plough back to the community in which she was raised in Mdantsane.
“The aim is to develop the communities by using the power of the arts as the mechanism to deal with the fundamental challenges that our communities are faced with,” Ngoma said.
She said she had decided to establish this festival because there were not enough platforms for the youth to showcase their talents.
“We decided last year to start the festival, with help from the National Arts Council,” Ngoma said.
“We organise groups around Mdantsane, Duncan Village and other areas. That is where people showed interest so that is why we did it again, with the help of the department of arts and culture in Gauteng.
“Our aim is to have this festival in all the areas. We had our first at the Mdantsane Indoor Sports Centre and our next one we want to move to Duncan Village or Nxarhuni, so that we can promote and attract more talent,” Ngoma said.
Ngoma said the festival was open to anyone who had talent and was willing to share it with the world.
“The participants we have are children who have formed their own groups, some formed at their schools.
“We want to encourage young people, especially the unemployed.”
And youth came out in their numbers to showcase their talent.
There were 44 groups that performed at the festival.. Some shared their poetic skills, others entertained the audience with their singing capabilities, while others danced and showed off their acting skills in short plays.