Thousands gear-up for MMSAC Heritage Festival
Mokopane
Thousands of cultural and sporting fanatics from across the country are gearing up for the upcoming Mokopane Heritage Festival, which is set to take place at Mokopane Multipurpose for Sports, Arts & Culture (MMSAC) Centre from 23 to 27 September 2024.
The event is an innovative project of MMSAC to recognise and celebrate Mokopane’s vibrant cultural diversity.
This year’s festival will be celebrated under the theme: “Building Bridges between local people, businesses and organisations irrespective of race, sex, age, faith, sexual orientation, and social/educational/economic & cultural background.”
The Festival is a ‘follow on’ from Africa Day, which is celebrated annually on 25 May across the African Continent.
According to the organizers, the Mokopane Heritage Festival project aims to celebrate the diversity in food, culture and music of Mokopane, while connecting South African citizens and the local inhabitants from diverse cultures living, working and studying in and around Mokopane.
It also set to create inclusive and innovative partnership platform for collaboration between big businesses and small businesses, in different faith communities, rich and the poor, between the private sector and civil society groups to enhance socio-economic development.
The festival stimulate conversations around shared value themes such as respect, diversity and others that all who live, work and study in Mokopane can buy into in order to create a socio economic environment that benefits all. The aims of Mokopane Heritage Festival is aligned with MMSAC’s youth development programme.
The project targets both as participants and festival goers, students, local community groups of interest, artists, small and large business owners, schools, churches, mosques and any other relevant parties from within Limpopo Province.
The project will endeavour to reach across all racial makeup in Mokopane and it is proposed that relevant marketing and publicity materials be in English, Afrikaans and Sepedi to promote genuine inclusion.
Activities during festival will start with opening ceremony with Memorial Lecture at MMSAC Centre on 23 September.
During the day there will be exploration of the Piet Potgieter’s Grave Arend Dieperink Museum, Moordrift and Mokopane’s Cave.
Part of the activities will be Heritage Day event which will be celebrated on 24 September at the MMSAC Centre.
The 25th September will be reserved for sports with different sporting codes including Soccer Rugby, Aerobics, Boxing, Hockey, Volley ball, Netball, Hand ball and Tups captivating the people.
Spectators will also have an opportunity to be entertained with Indigenous Games such as Kgati, Diketo, Morabaraba and Moruba.
The events will be closing with a music festival on 26 September where visitors will experience performance by local artists, Traditional Dancing such as Step, Dinaka and Jazz.
Food, Fashion, Arts & Culture, Poetry, Creative Media such as Radio Field Interviews, Presentation, Exhibition and Discussion Groups will form part of the festival.
Mokopane was officially renamed from Potgietersrus in 2003, in honour of a local Northern Ndebele leader, King Mgombane Gegana, who ruled the area before being conquered by the Voortrekkers.
Mokopane is the Sepedi form of the king’s name, and is hence erroneous, even though the majority language in the area is Sepedi.
Two hours from Gauteng by road, the town acts as a getaway destination and as a stop-over for travellers en route to Botswana, Zimbabwe and Kruger National Park.
The area is typical bushveld with many acacia trees and aloes, which display their beautiful blooms in June and July.
