Artists do Bay proud at awards
NELSON Mandela Bay artists scooped most of the honours at the Eastern Cape Department of Sport, Recreation, Arts and Culture Awards held on Saturday at East London’s Guild Theatre.
The awards, which are in their third year, serve as the highest level of recognition for excellence in arts and culture.
There were two categories – the MEC social award and public nomination awards.
The former is a bid to recognise people from the province who have made it big on local, national and international stages.
Department spokesman Andile Nduna said that through this category MEC Pemmy Majodina wanted to thank the artists for putting the Eastern Cape on the map.
Then there were the public nomination awards, where community members were asked to submit the names of people who had contributed towards arts and culture.
The Nelson Mandela Bay winners of the public nomination awards were Mongei Ncwadi (Best Drama Performance), Lerven Botha (Best Dance Performance), O’yama Vanto (Best Arts Admin Management), Creshwel October (Best Individual in Music), Patrick Pasha (Lifetime Achievement), and Nompumeleo Gubevu (Best Curator in Visual Arts).
The MEC social award went to Bulelani Koyo, who also won Best Traditional Gospel Album at the Ingoma Awards held earlier this year.
Koyo said it felt great to be honoured by the MEC.
“It is always good to be recognised at home. As musicians we feel left out and neglected by the department but this shows the department cares for us,” Koyo said.
Dance and drama adjudicator Xabiso Zweni said it was good that all the nominees were invited to the awards ceremony. “[The awards] were a great spectacle for our artists in the Eastern Cape. Bay artists made a great impression, putting us on the map,” Zweni said.