MEC promises incident-free Mapungubwe Festival

Sport, Arts and Culture MEC Thandi Moraka has promised music enthusiasts and merrymakers an incident-free Mapungubwe Festival.
The annual festival, which saw the department spending R7 million to put together, is set to commence on 8 December with a youth festival, a comedy night on the 14th and then culminate with the jazz festival on the 15th. All the activities are set to take place at the Polokwane Cricket grounds. An incident at last year’s event sent shock waves through the festivalgoers when it was learnt that afro-pop sensation Amanda Black had been threatened at gunpoint by an unidentified attacker while preparing for a performance as part of the programme. The public felt they were no longer safe at such festivals and questioned the security at the event.
At the launch of this year’s event held at Mapungubwe World Heritage site on Monday, Moraka said they would do anything to ensure that everyone who will be attending the event is safe and enjoys the festivities without any hindrances. “We will ensure that all necessary security precautions are taken into consideration when planning the event. We are going to make sure that the security is beefed up at all events,” Moraka said.
The household names lined up for the three events include multi award winning hip hop artist, Kwesta, Sjava, King Monada, Zonke, Jonas Gwangwa, Selaelo Selota and Mafikizolo.
The festival will be preceded by build-up events in the districts to popularise the event and drum up support for the forthcoming festival.
Moraka stressed that through the festival they would promote the province’s rich and diverse cultural heritage and also deepen social cohesion. “Beyond this the cultural festival should demonstrate and expose the artistic skills of local, regional and international musical artists, thereby expanding their market as artists. This is in line with our vision to ensure that arts and culture contribute to economic growth and the livelihoods of the people of this country and Limpopo Province in particular”.
Chief Executive Officer of Limpopo Tourism Agency (LTA), Nomasonto Ndlovu said they were ready to host merrymakers who will attend the festival. “LTA is behind this festival and fully committed to providing support for its success as we have already begun. The more people the festival draws during the festive period, the more the propensity to have increased spent and stay in the province. This will help contribute to the tourist numbers which is what we need but will also help the province reclaim its number one spot as the most visited tourist destination in the country on a domestic tourism front. The success of this festival is invariably the success for tourism in the province.”
She urged tour operators to take advantage of the economic opportunities that comes with the festival. “The festival can be seen as a great opportunity for our tour operators to use to their advantage by packaging the route for purposes growing tourism in the province. The launch of the festival at this venue to us is the step in the right direction as it helps promote heritage tourism, which is very huge to the international market. Tour operators should be proactive by developing packages that will entice travellers even beyond the festival to choose Limpopo than any destination given its tourism offering as there is indeed more to enjoy in our province,” she stated.

Story: Herbert Rachuene
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