Exciting festival that nurtures and maintains cultural activities
The Yenza Festival grows in popularity year-by-year
Once again, in fact for the eighth time, the Yenza Festival rocked the community hall in Entokozweni Township, Van Reenen, on Friday and Saturday.
‘Yenza’ provides a unique opportunity for schools, groups and individuals to exhibit their skills and compete with their peers.
The festival grows in popularity year-by-year.
On Friday, primary school teams from Van Reenen, Mphophomo, Brookfield, Brakvaal and uMvula competed in categories of traditional dance, gospel singing and poetry.
About 320 schoolchildren and teachers packed the hall, which literally shook to the excited shouts of support for the competing teams.
It was an energising experience to be engulfed by the youngsters’ sheer joy of being involved. Teachers and schoolchildren were provided with lunch.
Saturday was far more serious and competitive as far as the participants were concerned.
The popularity of the event, enhanced by cash prizes, draws participants from far and wide.
Teams competed in a wide variety of disciplines, including Maskandi, Urban Dance, Poems, Ballroom Dancing, Gospel Singing, Traditional Dancing and Hip Hop.
The hall was bursting at the seams on Saturday, with about 450 people attending, and the organisers were happy to welcome officials from Alfred Duma Local Municipality.
The programme ran from 9.30am until 4.30pm and was filled non-stop with a wide variety of disciplines, providing endless entertainment for the audience. Once again, the noise was deafening as each team was urged on by its supporters.
The festival has always been organised and funded by the Van Reenen/Swinburne Tourism Association and a vote of thanks must be given to Mbuso Ndaba, the association’s community development officer, who has selflessly organised the festival year after year.
The association recognises its responsibility to further community-based involvement, as well as its primary function of promoting tourism in the area. Tourism is a major employer in the Van Reenen/Swinburne environment and closer links with traditional cultural activities need to be explored and exploited.
Yenza provides a platform for the encouragement of traditional cultural activities to be nurtured and maintained through man’s naturally competitive nature. It is a festival of considerable value in this respect and the worth of its community-recognised value is considerable.
Thanks also goes to the three judges who sat through all Friday’s and Saturday’s events.
They came from Ladysmith, Blue Bank and Tintwa, ensuring impartiality.
One only has to experience the day-long volume of noise, and the extraordinary demonstration of energy and enthusiasm for everything that is happening to have absolutely no doubt about the impact and importance that ‘Yenza’ has on the ever-growing number of participants.
This year, participants flocked to Entokozweni from Peacetown, Besters, Blue Bank, Brakvaal, Van Reenen, Springvale, Tintwa, Harrismith, Swinburne, Oaklands and Ladysmith.
