Mahikeng – North West Premier, Supra Mahumapelo has urged local and professional artists to come together in resuscitating the creative industry and developing local artists in the province. 

Speaking during TNA breakfast show on SABC 2 Morning live, from the Mmabatho Convention Centre this morning, Premier Mahumapelo said the best way of bringing back the vibrancy in the arts and culture in the province is to work with experienced artists who must come up with proposals on how to take the province forward.

“We need to work together to make our province more vibrant like it used to be in the past, of producing best artists and exciting events.

“If we are serious about radically bringing back the status that our province used to hold in the past, we need to unite,” he said.

Mahumapelo said his Provincial Administration has prioritized arts, culture and tourism as the key pillars of the economy of the province.

“We do not want to depend much on mining as the pillar of our economy in the province but we believe that arts and culture can assist us in taking the province forward.

“We need men and women who are passionate about arts and culture to come up with exciting ideas that can revive the province,” he said.

He said the province want to use arts and culture to market tourism in the province.

He emphasized that the province is known of its richness in arts and culture, adding that artists can market the province very well.

MEC for Culture, Arts and Traditional Affairs, Tebogo Modise said her department has set aside 10 million for the annual Mahika Mahikeng Cultural event that is scheduled to commence in November this year.

MEC Modise said her department intends to support and market this event to be one of the best in the country.

“We intend to work with our local artists and professional artists who are from this province to come up with best ideas for this event.

We believe that the people of the province have talent and capacity to come up with brilliant ideas that can give birth to best product,” she said MEC Modise.

One of the Province’s well-known artists who come from Mahikeng, Keabetswe Motsilenyane supported Premier Mahumapelo and MEC Modise’s plans to develop Arts and Culture in the Province.

She urged the provincial government to include them throughout the process of developing the arts and culture in the province.

“We do embrace all the plans that the Premier has mentioned about the province. It is very important for us as professional artists, government and business to work together in developing the arts in our province,” she said.-TDN
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