By OBAKENG MAJE
4 April 2025- The Re Aga Taung Civic Organisation (RATCO) calls on the Minister of Sports, Arts and Culture, Gayton McKenzie to intervene regarding Taung Cultural Calabash event. The event that always takes place during a heritage month, September, it is now a shadow of itself.
The Chairperson of Re Aga Taung Civic Organisation (RATCO), Modisaotsile Lebitse said the event was scheduled to take place in March 2025, however, that never happened. Lebitse said they are now dejected as artist representatives.
“Immediately when you mention Taung Cultural Calabash, I feel dejected. The truth of the matter is that, we fighting a losing battle and we not going to win. We tried our level best to ensure that the North West Department of Arts, Sports, Culture and Recreation do things right, but we failed.
“I even wrote a letter to the Minister of Arts, Sports, Culture and Recreation, Gayton McKenzie, requesting for his intervention. However, he has not responded yet. However, I am disappointed because he is the most vigorous Minister thus far,” he said.
Lebitse further said they will again try to communicate with McKenzie’s office and understand why he has not responded yet. He added that, they have also written to Afri-forum for assistance too.
“Afri-forum has also not responded, but we will make follow-ups. The issue of Taung Cultural Calabash event needs a probe. There are many issues in the Greater Taung area that need thorough investigations and we will go down to the wire.
“So, we going back to the drawing board and come up with better strategy on how to approach those issues. Taung Cultural Calabash is a shadow of itself as we speak,” said Lebitse.
One of the artists in North West, Thapelo Mokhutshoane said, in the heart of the North West province lies a growing frustration and a festering wound in the cultural and creative industries. Mokhutsoane alleged that, a staggering R4 million budget – allocated jointly by the North West Department of Arts, Culture, Sports and Recreation and the National Department of Arts and Culture – earmarked for the historically significant Taung Cultural Calabash Festival, has slipped into obscurity.
“The funds, instead of revitalizing the creative economy and preserving one of the province’s most important cultural heritage events, now sit idle on the brink of reversion to the National Treasury.
“With no event delivered, no clear accountability, and no viable contingency plan presented, the North West arts community is calling out the glaring injustice and failed leadership that threatens not only the province’s artists, but the very cultural memory of Taung itself,” he said.
Mokhutshoane said since its inception, Taung Cultural Calabash has served as a vibrant platform showcasing the diverse tapestry of South Africa’s indigenous arts, heritage, and cultural expressions. He said Taung Cultural Calabash is more than a festival as it is a legacy event, deeply rooted in the story of Taung – a site known internationally for the discovery of the Taung Child fossil, a symbol of human origins and African pride.
“The festival has always functioned as both a cultural cornerstone and an economic driver for local communities, providing artists with visibility, economic participation, and a vital sense of cultural agency.
“Yet in 2024, when the R4 million was set aside to breathe life back into this festival after years of inconsistent support, it became yet another statistic in the ledger of mismanagement and bureaucratic inertia,” said Mokhutshoane.
He said, initially postponed from late 2024 to March 2025, the festival now sits in limbo, having failed to materialize once more. Mokhutshoane said crucially, no substantive or valid reasons have been communicated to the affected stakeholders – the artists, vendors, communities, and cultural workers who have long sustained the festival through their creativity and labour.
“Where is the leadership from the Mmabana Arts, Culture and Sports Foundation, the very institution entrusted to steward this cultural institution?
“Where are the explanations from the provincial and national departments, who released these public funds? Most importantly, where is the strategic intervention from the custodians of the provincial creative sector?” he asked.
Mokhutshoane said if R4m allocation is returned to the National Treasury, the fund will join the ranks of unspent budgets that often indicate either administrative incompetence or systemic neglect. He said this is not merely about an event that failed to take place – it is about the erosion of trust, the systemic marginalization of artists in the province and a pattern of disempowerment that mirrors the broader crisis facing South Africa’s cultural sectors.
Meanwhile, the North West MEC for Arts, Sports, Culture and Recreation, Virginia Tlhapi said: “We are going to re-purpose the Taung Cultural Calabash event and we will have a consultative engagement with artists across the province and see how they benefit.”
The Guardian 