Honourable MEC: Mr Lebogang Maile, Executive Mayor of the Sedibeng District Municipality Mr Mahole Mofokeng, Member of the Mayoral Committee Cllr Mike Muir, Politicians present here today, the head of department of Sport, Arts and Recreation, The member of the task team: Mfanelo Jacobs, Choristers, our audience and music enthusiasts, friends from the media, ladies and gentlemen.

Angel Monet once said “We dance for laughter, we dance for tears, we dance for madness, we dance for fears, we dance hopes, we dance for screams, we are the dancers, we create dreams”.

On this morning we are nostalgic about our own beings, our traditions and our life.

We pride ourselves with the sweet melodies that express our inner being, we express who we are and where we come from.

We visualize our future through words and we shall continue this expression for a better world through music.

As we gather here today on the 1st Indigenous Gospel Music Festival, the sweet melodies of the beautiful birds that nestle the trees of the Vaal River offer serenity, tranquillity, peace and prosperity.

We have walked many miles to fight for the recognition our traditions, our culture and values.

Today’s festival is a dawn of a new beginning and a confirmation of the diversity of our nation united by a common bond of building a better society.

We have travelled many miles, from the mountains of Thaba Busiou, the hinterlands of Sekhukhuneland, the valleys of KwaDukuza, the rivers of the Kei and the arid land of the Hottentot with the melodies of the birds of the African Forest soothing and comforting us, giving us hope on our journey and quest for a life with no chains and yokes

We went out of our laagers and recognized our rainbowism through the boere musik, and die volk dans.

Our blood flows from the veins of our mothers who sang and ululated as we descended the Maluti, Drankensbrug, Leolo and Soutpansberg mountains.

We sang the war songs as we crushed the oppressive regime and today we sing the songs of our glory and triumph over suppression of the inheritance of our forefathers.

Our freedom was not only attained by other means but through music which The Sage of Potato Hill, Edgar Watson Howe once said ”When people hear good music, it makes them homesick for something they never had, and will never have”.

We were homesick our fundamental rights, our dignity, our pride, our heritage.

Our homesickness despised oppression and on the 21st March 1960 and the 16th June 1993 guns blazed through Sharpeville and Boipatong.

The sound of gunfire could not silence the voice which today makes us proud of us being our indigenous self and singing our indigenous gospel music amidst the rains that offer peace, unity and friendship

We all gather here homesick about our origins, about love, about the rich history of the Vaal, its surroundings and its people.

Welcome to Emfuleni, enjoy the serenity of the Vaal River where human rights were achieved through the blood of our ancestors.

Yet their victory and history told and celebrated through music.

You belong and we care.

Thank you.

Cllr. SA Mshudulu
Executive Mayor-Emfuleni Local Municipality
26 February 2011