Joburg Tourism kickstarted the new year by reviving the township economy with the popular Makhelwane Festival, one of Soweto’s signature community markets with a focus on music, fashion, food, business, and tourism.
The three-day festival, now in its seventh year, started on Friday, 28 January and wrapped up on the evening of Sunday, 30 January at Lebo’s Backpackers in Soweto, with emphasis on “Connecting Communities”.
“The festival returned to connect the communities of Soweto and Joburg Tourism is excited to have collaborated with this neighbourhood initiative. Hosting this festival is a way of paying tribute to some of the wonderful people that we recently lost, including the world-renowned Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu and Lebo Malepa, a leading light in Soweto’s tourism and business community,” said Nkululeko Mbundu, the MMC for Economic Development.
The Makhelwane Festival is a subsidiary initiative for township products, which develops and drives township tourism to create sustainable platforms for young, creative entrepreneurs across Joburg. The festival looks beyond domestic tourism with the idea of encouraging people outside of Gauteng and South Africa to explore Joburg, particularly Soweto as a viable tourism destination.
The festival was initiated in 2014 as an annual event in a bid to provide a place for small businesses, black street culture, and tourism to thrive.
Due to the devastating impact of the Omicron variant and the increasing number of Covid-19 infections, the festival did not take place last year. Its return this year bodes well for the local tourism sector, especially Small, Medium, and Micro Enterprises (SMMEs), and the City’s efforts towards creating employment opportunities.
“We are excited to support this initiative in honour of the late Lebo Malepa, who is the owner of this place. He was very instrumental in uplifting tourism and the economy of Soweto,” said Lumka Dlomo, the Acting Deputy Director for Public Relations and Destination Marketing at Joburg Tourism.
The Makhelwane Festival features a variety of food and music, as well as children’s entertainment, movie screenings, storytelling, and bike tours, which transform Lebo’s Backpackers into an epitome of youth culture, echoing the spirit of entrepreneurship and creative arts. Local brands such as Charisma, which produces ladies’ bags, Fab Plus-size Fashionza, a clothing store, and Native Rabels, a local restaurant, had a platform to gleam on the weekend.
“This initiative allows me to network with people from diverse backgrounds. My business has grown since I have been part of the Makhelwane Festival and I have managed to hire more staff for my business,” said Lebo Kaoadi, the Co-Founder of Native Rabels Restaurant.
Another SMME trader, Palesa Mosepeli, said the festival provided her with a platform to showcase her products.
“This is a breakthrough for me. I feel privileged to be here. I come from the Vaal and there are not many markets like this one. I have yet to explore a whole lot of things, and this will give my business exposure,” Mosepeli said.
Festival organiser Kgosi Rampa said Makhelwane was a Zulu word for one’s neighbour, but in African culture, the term is deeper than that; it refers to a community.
“Makhelwane presents a lifestyle festival that aims to reconnect and reignite the community through the neighbourhood culture of ‘Bo Makhe’ while promoting small and medium-sized local enterprises,” said Rampa.
He added that although the Covid-19 pandemic made it nearly impossible to maintain a connection with the community, be it your business, social or spiritual community, Makhelwane had revived Soweto’s spirit of Ubuntu.
“This festival is a celebration of all the connected communities that have made it through this pandemic and celebrates the different elements that unite us, like music, fashion, food, business, and tourism, to mention but a few,” Rampa said.
Written by Bongiwe Radebe
01/02/2022