Soutpansberg Primary School celebrated Heritage Day last Friday and learners came to school in their their cultural attire.
Nnditsheni Nyamutambo opened the day by greeting the teachers and learners in all 11 official languages of South Africa: Afrikaans, English, IsiNdebele, Northern Sotho, Southern Sotho, SiSwazi, Tswana, Xitsonga, Tshivenda, IsiXhosa and IsiZulu.
He greeted everybody in the name of peace and then handed over the microphone to principal Stienie Fourie.
Fourie told everybody how beautiful they looked. She called on some of the gr. 7 learners to read quotes that they pulled out of a traditional Venda cooking pot.
One of the quotes read: “Our grandparents still tell us stories about our culture, songs, music and dances are part of our culture. We are proud of our culture we know where we come from”.
“We are all different, but in the end we are all one. We live in the same country and as South Africans, we all love to braai and that is why we also celebrate Braai Day on the same day as Heritage Day,” said Fourie.
Nnditsheni took over and started the fashion parade that he organised. Some of the teachers were judges and selected the best dressed learners. The 12 winners each received a Wimpy voucher.
Some of the gr. 7 learners were also called on stage to do a very famous Venda dance, the Venda Domba or python dance, which is held annually to secure good rain for the following season.
During this dance, young maidens, as the final stage of their initiation into womanhood, line up in single file forming a chain and dance in long fluidly winding lines, like a snake.
