The Department of Sport, Arts, Culture and Recreation will be launching three important programmes in the field of sport as well as arts and culture. These projects are the Free State Boxing League; Mines Dance Competition and Arts in Schools.
Free State Boxing League launch
The Department of Sport, Arts Culture and Recreation has over the past couple of years remained committed to the overall development of different sporting codes throughout the province. The department has focused its sports development programmes within communities and has focused its initiatives at local level.
As part of realising this objective, MEC Dan Kgothule will officially launch the Free State Boxing League to revive, promote and elevate boxing in the various communities in the province. The launch of the Free State Boxing League in the province is based on the rich history of the sport in the province. This programme aims to provide amateur boxers with a platform to hone and showcase their skills whilst also providing a conducive environment for them to join the professional ranks.
The department, through this initiative, envisages organising a provincial amateur boxing league that will be tasked with providing the necessary capacity to empower athletes, administrators and technical officials to maintain the highest ethics and standards of professionalism in the sport of boxing throughout the province.
The Free State Boxing Championship will be implemented in all the five districts of the province and will afford all boxing clubs and stables the opportunity to participate. Participation from each club/stable will range from the Elite men and women, youth and junior boxers.
Mines Dance Competition (Famo) launch
The department will launch the first ever Mines Dance Competition. For a long time mines across the country have served not only as drivers of economic growth and development but also as a source of strong and rich traditional dance practices and performances amongst mine workers. The diversity of cultures that is prevalent in the mines led to different ethnic groups engaging in dance and music as a form of entertainment during their free time.
It is against this backdrop that the department has undertaken to identify, preserve and promote these traditional dances through community development, workshops visual and written documenting as well as providing platforms for formal competition.
Through the Mines Dance Competition, the department aims to popularise the unique traditional dances as practiced in the different mines of the Free State by providing regular workshops, providing a representative platform for mineworkers and local community dancers to showcase their talents. This initiative also complements the department’s objective to promote social cohesion through the arts.
It is envisaged that the competition will improve the social and cultural condition of mineworkers and immediate communities by creating awareness, transferring skills and promoting social cohesion. The dance competition will cater for all the various ethnic groups found in the mines across the province and will include performances in the following genres Ndlamo, Hupe, Mohobelo and Tswana dance.
The 2012 Mines Dance Competition will be held over two days, from the 16th to 17th March 2012.
Arts in schools launch
Arts in schools is a project or programme which not only aims to provide exposure and experience to learners in different forms of art such as dance, drama and music, but to advance the overall performance of schools. Most importantly the project aims to support our youth in pursuing their talents as it will move learners from being inheritors of culture to being active participants.
The arts in school project is undertaken in the fields of visual and performing arts.
Your media establishment is cordially invited to the launch of the above three programmes as follows:
Date: 2 March 2012
Time: 17h30
Venue: Ferdie Meyer Hall (Welkom)
Your media establishment is cordially invited to attend this event.
General Enquiries (On Boxing League)
Tankiso Zola
Tel: 051 4104742/4786/4719
Cell: 082 940 2392
E-mail: tankiso@sacr.fs.gov.za
George Tshabalala
Tel: 051 4073500
Cell: 082 461 5997
E-mail: georgep@sacr.fs.gov.za
General Enquiries (On Mine Dance Competition and Arts in Schools)
Moipone Mokhutle-Moroka
Tel: 057 355 6757
Cell: 083 496 8409
E-mail: moipone.mm@sacr.fs.gov.za
