Hold your heritage high
“As much as we would like to meet dressed in our beautiful traditional outfits and share and celebrate different cultural knowledge, we would rather not."
KwaThema – Amandebele Chief Eliaja Skhosana has urged residents to respect and protect their heritage and traditional medicines. This was his message to residents as part of Heritage Month celebrations. Skhosana said because of the pandemic, they were unable to host their annual Heritage Month commemoration. “As much as we would like to meet dressed in our beautiful traditional outfits and share and celebrate different cultural knowledge, we would rather not. “It would be careless of us as leaders of the community to convene and risk our health. “We have all seen how people have lost their lives to Covid-19, both in the country and abroad.
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“Ours is to respect the Covid-19 regulations as set by government. “Just because our elected leaders are relaxing the restrictions, doesn’t mean the virus has ceased to exist. “If we use the same discipline we will be able to fight social ills. “Let us remember to sanitise, social distance, wear masks and not attend social events,” he said. The chief urged residents to use this opportunity to educate young people about their heritage. “It is important that young people know their roots for them to be able to carry the baton forward. “It was embarrassing to see young adults who didn’t know what umhlonyane (a medicinal herb used to treat various ailments) is until they heard about it through the media.
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“This herb has been passed on from one generation to the other, but it seems the information transfer got lost somewhere. “This should not be the case. We should share all the skills and knowledge we acquired from our forefathers with young people who will also share it with the next generation,” he said. Follow us on: 
