The National Youth Development Agency wishes to congratulate all South African Music Awards winners in this year's 16th annual awards ceremony held at the Sun City over the weekend.
It is the view of the NYDA that ongoing recognition of local musicians and their music will go a long way in developing the industry and promoting South African local content in the media. The local media should in turn promote local content more.
"In a series of meetings we have held with the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) on the promotion of youth educational programming we have consistently emphasised the importance of promoting local content from our own local music to drama, talk shows and reality shows to tell our own stories," says NYDA Chairperson, Andile Lungisa.
Lungisa says with the 2010 FIFA Soccer World Cup approaching in less than two months, there can never be a better time to vigorously promote and play local content in every television show and radio station and every newspaper. Furthermore the NYDA calls upon all South Africans to take responsible action towards supporting local artists by buying original music and discouraging the distribution and buying of pirated content.
The NYDA equally welcomes the intervention by the Minister of Arts and Culture, Lulu Xingwana to add local artists to the 2010 FIFA World Cup opening ceremony as their exclusion would have been a lost opportunity for local musicians to showcase their talent to the world.
The NYDA is particularly proud of young artists who won SAMAs such as Big Nuz, Axene, Lira, BLK JKS, Ntando, Jozi, Jaziel Brothers, Sechaba, Teargas, Parlotones and DJ Black Coffee.
"Since the liberation struggle days until the attainment of our political freedom, music has always been a source of inspiration, entertainment and a way of communicating between the masses of our people in South Africa. We are grateful to these young artists for continuing this tradition," says Lungisa.
He added that music promotes social cohesion and that the NYDA would like to see all the young artists collaborating more as they did at the SAMA awards.
"Our music entertainment industry continues to be characterised by youthful participation. As such it is in our best interest as a country to support and nurture such talent so that South Africa continues to communicate amongst its people and to the rest of the world through music," concludes Lungisa.
Issued by: National Youth Development Agency
19 April 2010
Source: National Youth Development Agency (http://www.nyda.gov.za/)
