Mrs. S. Thakur-Rajbansi seen with the Asherville Family Club celebrating the arrival of 1860 Indentured Labourers

Minority Front Leader, Mrs. S.T. Rajbansi, welcomed the initiatives and programmes of the Department of Arts and Culture for the 2017/2018 budget year.  These promote cultural organisations; multilingualism; geographical naming; creative industries; youth and community development.

The Minority Front will assist to promote culture through dialogue sessions,  presentations and support to cultural organisations and artists. We will be hosting a Youth Day event in June to foster social cohesion. Mrs. Rajbansi encourages all mother tongue teaching schools to engage during the review of the KZN Provincial Language Policy, to promote inclusivity because the Minority Front promotes multilingual projects within various schools.

Mrs. Rajbansi fiercely debated honouring iconic Indian persons in terms of geographical naming, and called on communities to initiate these in their areas. The Minority Front assists artists to showcase their talent and capacitates them in the production of their products. “To protect  this creative industry and allow businesses to flourish, the Minority Front endorses the Anti-Piracy Campaign,” said Mrs. Rajbansi. The beads festival must be promoted  with fashion show organisers because traditional design in products and clothes allows economic opportunities.

The Young Patriots Programme offers the youth internship to gain valuable work experience, and to educate them about history, heritage and promotion of social cohesion, offered by the Department and our youth should apply.

The promotion of art contributes to further understanding the history of our fellow South Africans and, with this in mind the Minority Front will collaborate with schools to nurture talent  and take advantage of  various government programmes.

Turning to community development, Mrs. Rajbansi referred to the War Room Intervention Package aligned to the Province’s Operation Sukuma Sakhe, which offers communities at ward level the chance to develop their musical talents and performances, as an opportunity not to be ignored. She went on to add that training members of reading and writing clubs and assisting people to trace their origins through the Family Tree Project is something which communities must be a part of. Mrs. Rajbansi, stated that our communities need to participate in Cultural Thursdays, a government programme, so that, social cohesion can be fast-tracked.