The North West Department of Arts, Culture, Sport and Recreation has acknowledged that despite a slow pace in refurbishing Mmabana Arts Centre that was destroyed seven years ago in Mahikeng, efforts to restore it to its former glory are well underway.
The building was looted and set alight by protesters on April 19, 2018, almost destroying a crucial hub of creative excellence and talent development in the province including negatively impacting on the cultural, social, and economic life of the North West province.
The department’s MEC Galebekwe Tsotso Tlhapi told YOUFM Newshour, that the R13m financial assistance they received from the National Department will help a great deal in restoring the centre to its former glory.
“Mmabana is much better now, compared to how it was in 2018.
Remember it was burnt down during a protest by an angry community.
After I was appointed to this department in 2018, during the 6th administration, I found the centre completely non-operational.
But we sat down and strategized with the officials and agreed to renovate the other section of the centre that is currently operational.
We immediately started refurbishing another part of the centre with the assistance of the national department,” said Tlhapi.
She said the process is already underway to restore the place and bring it to its former glory.
“We have already started with the processes of ensuring that the entire centre, which is the provincial head office, must be fully restored.
That I believe have been difficult for our artists who have been unable to access theatre, to refine their skills and everything that they were able to do before the building was set alight,” added Tlhapi.
The MEC has acknowledged the negative impact the destruction of the centre has had on the artists.
“We all know that Mmabana produced many exceptional performers that we are now seeing in Gauteng today, who can forget the likes of the late Presley Chweneyagae, who is the star of the Grammy Award-winning movie Tsotsi, Dancer Tebogo Kgobokoe, actress and musician KB Motsilenyane, and Motswako artists Towdeemac, HHP, Tuks Senganga to mention but a few.
So, we want to restore Mmabana to its former glory and produce many other artists to represent the province countrywide and abroad,” explained Thapi.
Meanwhile, the MEC has welcomed the selection of 17 artists who will represent various sectors in the creative sector across the province.
“I am happy to report that we have had a successful virtual meeting during the week, where we agreed that artists must select amongst themselves their own representatives so that whenever there are issues, we know who we will be meeting.
“Those 17 representatives will deal with plans for the creative sector in the province.
“What is good is that they include every creative artist be it DJ’s, models, craft artists, drama and film etc,” MEC Tlhapi further emphasised.
“We have been struggling to support the creative sector, the artists because they are still unorganised like in the sports sector that has federations and confederations.
“We don’t know who we should be speaking to, but after our MIN-MEC discussions two weeks ago, we then resolved to change the approach to remodel the funding method meant for the artists.
“We agreed that artists must belong to a structure because they were uncoordinated,” Tlhapi concluded.
