Address by Gauteng MEC for Sport, Arts Culture and Recreation on the occasion of the launch of the fourth Pale Ya Rona Carnival

12 August 2008

A new dawn of creativity and splendor arose in the arts genre after the 2004 Carnival Summit held in Johannesburg . The carnival summit paved a way for a new art form that gives Gauteng province vibrancy during Heritage month. Questions were asked on most citizens of Gauteng of what this new art form is all about? What value does it add to the traditionally accepted art forms?

Gauteng is at the heart of a country full of diversity, hope and triumph, and needs a medium of telling its story to within and outside the borders of South Africa . Pale ya Rona Carnival is unlike any other cultural or artistic medium as it is a free event in which all participate.

This is the case with the Gauteng Department of Sports, Arts, Culture and Recreation who have been running a Carnival programme for a number of years as part of the Gauteng Heritage Month Celebrations. It was primarily used as a marketing tool and an opening event for the month's activities. However this model had its shortcomings as Carnival across the world has demonstrated that it has far greater social and economic benefits.

The Department of SACR has taken a position to create an environment where communities of Gauteng develop on their own a Carnival that reflects a truly South African or Gauteng experience. The intention is to implement the program so that it can become self sustainable and ultimately the support the state will provide in terms of services such as traffic support, emergency services, policing etc.

International best practice shows that Carnival has enormous scope as it combines both the performing and visual arts in one of the largest participatory events possible. Whilst we still have a long way to go in terms of achieving the goal of growing the carnival into a major tourist event, the carnival has become an important social and cultural event on the Gauteng calendar. Launched in 2005 under the theme Pale ya Rona- telling our stories-it allows for the mass participation of all our communities.

• PALE YA RONA 2008

Our first carnival had only fifteen troupes. In 2008 the number of participating troupes will increase to 45 and the number of participants to 15 000. Our aim in 2008 is to extend community participation to include additional nationalities and to develop partnerships to expand the carnival parade. The Tourism Department of Trinidad & Tobago will be bringing out the 22 " Courts Sound Specialists of Laventille Steel Orchestra Trinbago Steel Pan Band "to participate in the carnival.They are the current reigning medium band champion in Trinidad&Tobago.

We have also struck a partnerships with the French Institute, Embassy of the People's Republic of China to bring their lion and dragon dancers, The Royal Thai Embassy to bring Thai dancers to the carnival parade.The Royal Thai Embassy will be hosting the Thailand Grand Festival at Zoo Lake in Johannesburg from 13-14 September 2008 and has partnered with the Department to bring their folk dances from four regions to participate in the carnival parade. The Afrikaanse Volkspele, Scottish, French, Portuguese and Tamil federation will be joining in the parade alongside the communities of Gauteng .

The Department has also partnered with the Gauteng Department of Education to work with secondary schools in the Inner City for this year's carnival.

This year we began to finalise and expand on our training iniatives and skills transfer programmes. In March 2008 we implemented our first international skills exchange programme with Stephen Derek, one of the leading exponents of the cultural art form of carnival costume design and construction in Trinidad & Tobago. He spent two weeks at the Sibikwa Community Art Center in Ekurhuleni transferring these skills to 30 young carnival practitioners from our carnival camps. The large costumes that he assisted in designing and building will be featured in this year's carnival.

In partnership with the French Institute of South Africa we will be implementing a special project with Les Grandes Personnes . They will host a 15 day workshop from 12-27 August 2008 with fourteen artists from our Orange Farm hub where they will make four giant puppets. Training will include staging, acting and handling the puppets which will be part of the carnival parade. Seven artists will take part in the" Out of the Box Festival" in Cape Town later in the year.

A Learnership programme with 15 learners at the Sibikwa Community Art Center as part of the existing Performing Art Learnership will be piloted. Depending on the success of the pilot, we will work with the MAPPPSETA and the relevant Standards Generating Body to develop an NQF 2 carnival learnership so that in future our carnival practitioners can obtain an internationally recognized qualification. In addition to the artistic training programmes, introductory workshops relating to design, welding and marshalling will be conducted. Regional participation is ensured by representation from all the metros, district municipalities and all the clusters in a management committee that meets bi-weekly.

The hub coordinators who excel in this year's carnival will also be provided with an opportunity to spend a week at the 2009 Trinidad & Tobago carnival as guests of the Carnival Commission.

• THE APPROACH

The approach to the carnival is based on international best practice. It was an approach that was defined and adopted at the Carnival summit in 2004.The programme is a broad based decentralized in the province and recreational activities in rudimentary level. Programs include skills training and recreational activities in recreation centers or community art centers which culminate in the final parade,

Its success depends on the level of involvement of each region as the identities of each adds to the richness of the parade as the final event.

• THE DESIGN AND THE THEMES

Design and theme workshops were held in each region namely Ekurhuleni, City of Tshwane , West Rand , Jo'burg, Sedibeng and Metsweding. The workshops catered for on average 50 artists. They were given the task of brainstorming what stories they felt the regions had to tell or what it represents. Once consensus had been reached regarding the concepts and themes were finalized the artists were required to begin to visualize how this could be interpreted in terms of costumes.

The themes agreed upon are as follows:  

Johannesburg : "Jozi, The home for diversity, creativity, entertainment,opportunities & progress"
Tshwane: Meshito le Melodi Ya Tshwane ( Sounds and Rhythm of Tshwane )

Ekurhuleni: Imbizo Ye Size Ekurhuleni (a National call)
Sedibeng: Botle Ba Sedibeng ( The beauty of Sedibeng
West Rand: Motswako Bophima (Mixture of West Rand Metsweding Motswako Bophima (Mixture of Westrand)

• DANCE AND MUSIC WORKSHOPS

Dance groups, music and youth groups from all the regions participated in a week long training in choreography workshops from 9-13 June 2008. At these sessions masqueraders were taught how to compose music, drumming and dance.

• THE ROUTE

The carnival parade will depart this year from Mary Fitzgerald Square on 6 September 2008 and end up at the Johannesburg stadium. The route will be starting at Bree and Mirriam Makeba streets via Joe Slovo, Saratoga / Charlton Terrace in to the Johannesburg Stadium.

The Carnival parade is the culmination of months of hard work from community groups, artisans and artists across Gauteng . It is a choreographed presentation of the stories gathered from each region. It is told in terms of costume, dance and music. Upon arrival at the stadium paraders will participate in an arts festival accompanied by a carnival show for those who missed the parade.

This year the Department will establish the Gauteng Carnival Commission based on the Trinidad & Tobago model to ensure that in the future the carnival is owned, managed and driven by stakeholders from all communities, and that it will continue to thrive and grow into the spectacle we know it can be.

I thank you,