Welkom’s 057 Home Coming makes a return after a four-year hiatus due to Covid-19

After a four-year hiatus due to the Covid-19 pandemic Welkom’s 057 Home Coming event announced its return this year with a line-up that include Emtee and Ami Faku.

“The reason we are here is to celebrate the return of 057 Home Coming, the biggest lifestyle event in central SA. I’m not only saying that because it’s what I like saying, the numbers speak for themselves,” said event co-founder Jabu Mpanza at the media launch on Thursday in Welkom.

Summer YoMuthi duo Blaq Diamond was also announced as one of the acts for the Boxing Day event. Other artists are expected to be announced in the coming days.

The event is set to take place on 26 December at the Griffons Rugby Stadium. Had Home Coming not been interrupted by Coronavirus, it would be celebrating a decade this year. The first round of artists were announced on Thursday.

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As the name suggests, the event is premised on people from the Free State being home during the festive season after spending the year in various parts of the country toiling.

“Obviously, growing up in Welkom and having to come back home, me and a friend of mine felt like we needed something we can all come back to and celebrate. A lot of people achieve so much outside the borders of Free State and it’s just basically a coming back home, celebrating with your old school mates and basically telling them this is where you are in life, and celebrating with one another,” averred Mpanza in explaining the concept of the event.

Getting support

“We feel very strongly about our Corporate Social Investment division, especially because this is home for a lot of people in our office. We feel it’s good to integrate with the community and we want to be accessible as attorneys because a lot of the time attorneys come across as people who are intimidating and very hostile,” said Nyapotse Incorporated Attorneys Associate, Thubelihle Mtshali.  

Nyapotse Incorporated Attorneys is one of the sponsors of the event, the law firm is found by Papi Nyapotse who hails from the Free State province.

“We have been working with 057 Home Coming for the past years and it has been growing. This year they [said] they want to come back after the pandemic, they presented at our Executive Committee [meeting] where it was declared that the Municipality will support them,” said Acting Senior Manager in Local Economic Development in the Matjhabeng Municipality, Malehloa Ramollo.

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