Bakwena Platinum Corridor Concessionaire (Pty) Ltd (Bakwena)’s flagship project, Drama For Change, once again culminated in two final events which were held on the 5th and 12th October 2019. This project is in its seventh year and involves learners from 17 schools from communities close to the N1N4 route. Powerful social messages, sourced from both the learners’ schools and their communities, are performed through drama.
The first event saw 9 schools from Ramotshere Moiloa area taking part in the final event held on 5th October at the Lehurutshe Civic Centre. At the second event held on the 12th October, 8 schools from Madibeng and Kgetlengrivier performed their plays at Borolelo Community Hall
Bakwena partnered with Monde Mayephu from Rare Arts Productions and CapaSIty (Pty) Ltd, to train Drama Pioneers from Dinokana and Bapong in drama and peer education, to enable the learners to develop their dramas around social issues affecting the youth of today in their communities.
Charmaine van Wyk, Public Relations manager at Bakwena says “the main objective of the campaign is to encourage the youth to make responsible decisions based on the social challenges and risks they are face in their day to day lives”.
The drama themes included road safety, domestic violence, children abuse, substance abuse, discrimination (physical disability), homophobia, mob justice, community dissent and femicide.
Adjudicators were an independent documentary professional, a local artist, 2 senior drama pioneers and a representative from Department of Health who judged both events and selected the best performances of the day. At the Lehurutshe event, Ramatu won best Overall Performance and Ngotwane was the runner-up, while at the Borolelo event, Johane Mokolobetsi walked off with the winning performance and two schools tied for the 2nd position namely Moedwil and St Teresa.
Van Wyk says that all performances from the learners were on a high level and conveyed powerful social messages. The Drama for Change initiative encourages young people to explore the issues that affect them most in a deeply personal way. Through this project we hope to encourage and assist young people to make affirming decisions in their lives.
We thank our partners and all the learners, teachers and Drama Pioneers for their dedication and hard work which was evident in the quality and professionalism of both drama events.