Mabe’skraal-The North West Department of Sport, Arts and Culture (DSAC) will next week host two events in honour of the community of the Batlhako Ba Matutu of Mabeskraal.

Over the past few months, DSAC has been hosting community events with Magosi around the Province as part of a drive to enhance moral regeneration, preservation of culture and highlighting issues of heritage.

“This is important for our Department to engage with the Magosi in order to fulfil our mandate,” said MEC Mme Tebogo Modise.

“We aim to celebrate the lives, culture and history of our communities and heroes and heroines who played an important role in the liberation struggle.

“Vast numbers of people from the Mabeskraal community were banished by the Apartheid order to areas such as Driefontein and Phaposane. They subsequently returned to Mabe’s Kraal after the end of Apartheid. We don’t want that to go unnoticed in our history.”

A history of the banishment of the people of Mabe’s Kraal has been recorded in two forms. In written form, it is part of a book by Dr Saleem Badat (Vice-Chancellor of Rhodes University), titled The Forgotten People, which was published recently.

The Freedom Park has also documented the banishment through the placement of the names of all those banished on the walls of the institution.

The North West Province continues to showcase its efforts in unearthing critical elements of the liberation struggle. Through these efforts of we bring to the fore the role people of the Province played in the fight for our liberation struggle.

Through its Museums and Heritage Unit, DSAC continues to provide extensive support to rural communities and their traditional leadership. This helps the Department identify heritage sites, places of significance, historical buildings, graves of heroes and heroines amongst others. These will also be included in a database for declaration.

Details of the event on March 15 are:
Venue: Mabeskraal Primary School

Time: 09h00
-TDN
Follow us on Twitter@Taung_DailyNews or @IceT_