PREMIER CALLS FOR UNITY
HERITAGE DAY should be a chance for Cape Town communities to celebrate their heritage and not to hide themselves in their mental and psychological homelands, said Premier Ebrahim Rasool.
He was speaking at Heritage Day celebrations at the Gugulethu Sports Complex yesterday, where praise singers, poets and cultural groups performed.
Rasool first visited the memorials of the Gugulethu Seven and Amy Biehi, where wreaths were laid.
He said former ANC leader Albert Luthuli was right when he called for a home for all years ago.
He could have said kill the whites for Sharpeville, for sending Nelson Mandela to Robben Island, and for sending Oliver Tambo into exile. In South Africa we have the right to be different and to speak our languages.
Theres nothing wrong with speaking Xhosa, Afrikaans or English. But why have our communities not grabbed this opportunity to share their stories?
There are some of us who try to celebrate in our corners and our psychological homelands. There is no reason for us in the Western Cape to be divided and to call each other names, he said.
Rasool said apartheid had deliberately created conflicts between black and coloured South Africans in the Western Cape by making coloureds supervisors and blacks their followers.
He said art and cultural forms such as poetry could break this divide.
If we want the Western Cape to be a home for all, maybe we must ask our poets to pick up where we couldnt.
We need to usher in an era of our poets again, said Rasool, referring to anti-apartheid poets such as James Matthews and Adam Small.
He said young South Africans were losing touch with their heritage.
Our children are becoming little Americans. Our children are losing their heritage. They are victims of MTV and Hollywood. We have our own music and drama, said Rasool.
The premier said he was disappointed that National Braai Day fell on the same day as Heritage Day, shifting the focus of the day on which our past, cultures and traditions are supposed to be celebrated.
Western Cape Heritage Day celebrations also included the Knysna Gastronomica Festival, Paarls Cultivaria Festival, and Plettenberg Bays Whiskey, Whales and Jazz Festival.
The day also saw a city concert honouring veteran drummer Louis Moholo-Moholo and his receipt of the Order of Ikhamanga, South Africas highest honour in arts and culture.
The City of Cape Town hosted a Reach for the Stars gala award ceremony in Durbanville as part of its Heritage Day celebrations.
The event was to honour children and youth from the SOS Childrens Villages and various communities in South Africa.
babalo.ndenze@inl.co.za
CELEBRATIONS: Drum majorettes from Gugulethu perform watched by Premier Ebrahim Rasool and Cultural Affairs, Sport and Recreation MEC Whitey Jacobs at a Heritage Day celebration in the area yesterday.
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