15 May 2019

The third edition of Kgosi Malope II’s birthday celebration, scheduled for July 25, is expected to enhance cultural development and provide a platform for interaction between him and the community.

Spearheaded by the Ga-MmaLeema Cultural committee, the celebration was started as a private function, which was also a surprise to Kgosi Malope three years ago.

However, the organisers have since gone out of their way to ensure that the event becomes even bigger this time around.

“This year, we decided to make it public because the main objective is to encourage recognition of Kgosi Malope as the paramount chief in the region as well as promote interaction between him, students, teachers, corporate entities as well as the community at large,” said a member the organising committee, Olga Tsimanyana.

Additionally, Tsimanyana, who is also Kidz Academy International school head, said the event sought to mark the cultural village, situated at the school, as a stakeholder in cultural development in the southern region through embodiment of cultural studies in the learning curriculum. As a private school, she said they did not want their students to forget their roots hence their Setswana lessons were held at the cultural village, which comprises of traditional artefacts.

She said they had invited government schools within Kanye and private schools  in Lobatse to take part in the celebrations. She said the participation of private schools would be a benchmarking exercise aimed at promoting cultural studies in private schools.

As part of the build-up towards the main event, Tsimanyana explained that they had organised the sponsored walk under the theme ‘Walk with the Chief’ to be held on June 8.

For the walk, she said they had invited the business community and tribal leaders, among them Kgosi Kgari III, who is Kgosi Malope’s friend.

Furthermore, she noted that there would be a traditional beauty pageant for people aged 50 and above scheduled for July 6.

“Since the main event is culture-oriented, we want to give the elders the confidence that they are still recognisable and also acknowledge them as custodians of culture,” she explained.

She appealed to individuals and the business community to support their activities through participation and sponsorships of any kind.

She said they needed the community to unite towards cultural development in the region adding that their participation would be appreciated. ENDS