Show controversy

Date: 18 July 2014 By: Isabel Venter

The Makhado Municipality has this week defended its statement that there should be only one annual show for the region.

Makhado Mayor David Mutavhatsindi announced during his state-of-the-municipality address on 27 June that the annual Makhado Show will take place at the show grounds from 31 July to 2 August. “There is only one Makhado Annual Show. No other show must take place to confuse our residents,” said Mutavhatsindi. “We appeal to all members of our community to support this event, which aims to showcase the unique and diverse information and other products and services offered by cooperatives,” he had added.

This remark once again highlighted the issue that some residents of Makhado (Louis Trichardt) had experienced with another festival that was held the same time as the Makhado Show during previous years.

Last year, the Makhado Show took place over the same weekend of 1 to 3 August as the Inni-Berg Festival. The Inni-Berg Festival is a “Limpopo Arts and Marketing Festival” hosted by the CVO Zoutpansberg School, outside of Makhado (Louis Trichardt), as a fundraiser for the school’s projects.

Following last year’s events, several residents accused the organisers of the Inni-Berg Festival of deliberately planning the event to coincide with the Makhado Show, so as to function as an alternative "show" catering exclusively for the white residents of town. 

After Mayor Mutavhatsindi’s remarks, the local Democratic Alliance (DA) also contributed to the argument by stating that the mayor’s declaration was unconstitutional. Local DA councillor Brian du Plooy said that each [cultural] group had the constitutional right to organize their own events. “Council should not politicize everything but realize that there are many political groupings...” said Du Plooy.

Following this, the Makhado Municipality was approached for media comment regarding the mayor’s speech. Municipal spokesperson Mr Louis Bobodi, who admitted to writing the mayor’s speech, was asked whether the remark by the mayor was referring to the Inni-Berg Festival. Bobodi was also specifically asked why the municipality would object to another festival.

According to Bobodi, the municipality was not pointing a finger at any one event. “We were just urging people not to hold their cultural event at the same time as the Makhado Annual Show,” said Bobodi last Tuesday. He also mentioned the Soutpansberg Primary School’s Merry-go-Round event that will also be hosted during August, which the municipality also considers to be a show.

Bobodi further explained that the municipality was working towards the goal of having one annual event that will unite all cultural groupings within the municipality. “We used to have one annual show, which was quite inclusive of all cultural groups within the area,” said Bobodi.

“We do not discourage other festivals, but we should have one big event which embraces all the groups within the municipality, such as the Makhado Annual Show. We should be seen as one in everything that we do.”

Traditionally the Makhado Show has either been held during the last week of July or the first week of August, from Thursday to Saturday. In recent years, however, the date has deviated from this arrangement, and the municipality has failed to publish the date in a timely manner. Bobodi conceded this fact and said that the municipality was busy addressing the problems, so that the Makhado Show can be an event that will bring the local community together.

The organisers of the Inni-Berg Festival were also approached for comment about their choice of date for the event. In an official e-mail, they refrained from commenting. Unofficially the newspaper has, however, learnt that the organisers usually choose and publish the date about 10 months before the event, so as to book the performing artists. In addition, they chose this year’s date after consulting with various churches and charity organisations in Makhado (Louis Trichardt) to ensure that the InniBerg Festival would not draw attention from any other fundraising events.

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Isabel Venter

Isabel joined the Zoutpansberger and Limpopo Mirror in 2009 as a reporter. She holds a BA Degree in Communication Sciences from the University of South Africa. Her beat is mainly crime and court reporting.

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