Seshego Stadium hosts an Indigenous Festival celebrating our rich heritage of games, entertainment and food
This heritage month, the Minister of Sport and Recreation South Africa, Mr. Fikile Mbalula MP, will be hosting the 11th Annual Indigenous Games Festival (IG 2016). In partnership with the Provincial Department of Sport, Arts and Culture in Limpopo, the Indigenous Games Festival will be a showcase of all that is truly South Africa’s indigenous offering in Games, Entertainment (in music, fashion, arts and crafts) as well as Food.
Hosting 2016’s Indigenous Games (IG) Festival in Seshego Stadium, Polokwane, resonates with the programme’s mandate in truly getting in touch with our roots as a nation as well as ensuring that South African communities have easier access to participation in initiatives like this one where a week’s long programme of events will kick off from the 24th to 28th September 2016.
With the theme for 2016 being “Consolidating the base: Advancing sport development and transformation”, the department of Sport & Recreation continues to foster tangible and visible work-ethic promoting how its programmes are advancing sport development and transformation; who is benefitting from such an intent and lastly what it means in terms of the lives that are changed as a result of driving this mandate.
The IG Festival’s programme is a strategic fit to the department’s objective of identifying under profiled sporting codes and providing opportunities for the South African nation to take part in them. The 9 identified games for which 9 provinces are competing in for the National Indigenous Games Festival Championship are interwoven by a common thread of being shared among the different communities in South Africa, albeit referred to by different names in these communities.
With 11 years in the running, 2016 promises to boast participation of the Limpopo community who are being called to come in numbers, adorned in their cultural attire, to be part of the Street Carnival which kicks off on the 24th at14h00 from Ngoako Ramatlhodi Sports Complex and ending off at Seshego Stadium.
Expect Seshego to come alive as multitudes of our diversified cultures showcase their cultural dances and musical heritage to try and win the hearts of judges who will be on the lookout for that cultural group which best embodies the ethos of what it truly means to be South African in wear and dance or song.
The Carnival is followed by the Opening Festival still on the 24th which will see SA’s artists performing entertaining the crowds with much loved and well-known traditional musical pieces. Every day, from the 24th to the 28th of September, promises to be a festival at Seshego stadium featuring artists like Nathi, Ntando, Jeff Maluleke, Pensele, Dinaka, Tshetsha Boys to name a but a few; daily providing entertainment to the throng of spectators who will be at Seshego stadium.
Daily game fixtures will take place from the 25th to the 27th from 08h00 AM till 16h00 - entertaining spectators will be 9 provinces competing for the Indigenous Games Festival Championship of 2016 in these 9 Indigenous Games: Lintonga,Morabaraba, Ncuva, Kgati, Driestokkies, Jukskei, Diketo, Kho-Kho and Dibeke. After games daily Festival Session will be hosted from on the 26th and 27th continuing the theme of the day in entertaining through performances, food and Fashion Ramp Designer competitions.
The spirit of creating opportunities which can help grow the economic hub of this community is also part of this festival’s agenda. An Arts and Crafts Sellers Market will be at the heart of the exhibition area on the stadium providing Arts and Crafts producers with the opportunity to sell and showcase the work of their hands. In addition, African Fashion designers will daily be offered the Fashion Ramp to showcase their clothing with a chance to win also win prizes to further their craft.
Food Competition for those who believe themselves to be African cuisine chefs in the making will also be taking place during the IG Festival 2016 week led by the legendary Ms. Connie Chiume who’s known for her passion in African cuisine.
The need to foster an increase in knowledge of our heritage to the future leaders of this country, means that students will also find loads to learn from at the IG Festival. This year in partnership with the National department of Traditional Affairs, the Kraal Activation is back with a flurry of scheduled educational activities intended to inculcate a culture and heritage in the minds of the youth.
“The Indigenous Games Festival campaign whose brand mantra of “My games, My Roots, My future” is a rich, measurable offering responsive to driving the NDP’s vision of 2030: driving social cohesion and nation building through sporting platforms which drive active citizenry participation in sporting codes whose origins are rooted in South African’s rich history, heritage and culture”, Minister Mbalula concluded.
#IG2016 #MyGamesMyRootsMyFuture
Enquiries:
Nnaniki Malesa
Cell: 071 350 9125
Email: nnaniki@srsa.gov.za or nnanikisrsa@gmail.com
Jermina Kaka
Cell: 082 560 7197
Email: kakaj@sac.limpopo.gov.za
