The Executive Mayor has marvelled at the Caiphus Semenya and Letta Mbulu music and acting academy, which is under construction in the Soweto suburb of Jabulani.
“This will be an arts precinct meant to rejuvenate our identity through music and arts. Future generations shall reap the seeds that Ntate Caiphus has planted,” Cllr Geoff Makhubo enthuses.
Semenya and his lifetime sweetheart, Mbulu are building a music and acting school dubbed the National Academy of Africa’s Performing Arts (NAAPA). Located adjacent the Soweto Theatre, the institution will serve as a conduit to acquaint young people with the intricacies of show-business. It will offer professional training in music, dance and digital literacy.
“Many countries use the arts as a commodity. The value of showbiz can be used not only as a brand identity for a country but as a trade tool that adds to the economic profiling and growth of a nation,” says Cllr Makhubo.
Semenya (81), a renowned musical virtuoso and Mbulu (78), a jazz songstress are some of the enduring entertainers on South African shores. The construction of their academy won’t just serve as a legacy for the prolific musical duo. The facility’s erection in Jabulani dovetails with the City’s extensive development of the bustling suburb into Soweto’s Central Business District (CBD). When complete, the area will comprise a fully-fledged business and residential node and standalone cluster homes.
Jabulani, on Bolani Road, near the intersection with Soweto’s second busiest thoroughfare, Koma Road is already the sprawling township’s mecca of all sorts. It boasts an aesthetically pleasing, R150-million rand theatre, an antiquated amphitheatre drenched in historical significance, a multimillion-rand shopping mall as well as trendy high-density units.
The National Academy of Africa’s Performing Arts will neighbour 25 000m² of retail shops, 10 000m² of offices and 4 000 mixed-income homes, a percentage of which will be for low-income earners. There’s also a local police station, Emergency Management Service (EMS) centre, a large-scale regional hospital and an all-encompassing municipal precinct nearby. NAAPA will also be a stone throw away from the Credo Mutwa Cultural Village, which houses an outdoor museum of concrete sculptures and artefacts by the artist and herbalist of the same name.
“The National Academy of Africa’s Performing Arts will add to the tourism and cultural heritage of Joburg while offering opportunities to not only the immediate community of Soweto but the entire City; perhaps by extension and demand, the world,” says Cllr Makhubo.
The Mayor remarks that even during a global pandemic, the one place most people are likely to find solace in, is the arts.
“The arts offer not only entertainment but a sense of social cohesion and common ‘theatre’ while we all social distance in our respective homes.”