Heritage Day

September marks the annual Heritage Month in South Africa and it is used to celebrate and promote the varied cultural heritage of our nation. It is a month dedicated to recognise our heritage, both tangible and intangible. Tangible heritage refers to buildings, historic places, artefacts and monuments, while intangible are attributes that we have inherited from past generations such as language and knowledge.

This year marks 20 years since Heritage Day was created in 1996 and will be commemorated under theme “Celebrating our Human Treasures by Asserting our African Identity”. This year’s celebrations aim to put at the forefront the living human treasures and legends who, based on their immense contribution to the arts, culture and heritage landscape, are the custodians of indigenous knowledge.

Living legends are persons who possess knowledge and skill to give expression to erform living heritage. Living heritage is cultural expressions and practices that form a body of knowledge and provide continuity, dynamism and meaning of social life to generations of people as individuals, social groups and communities.

This year of 2016, Setsoto Local Municipality continued to host annual provincial heritage day celebrations here in Ficksburg. This year’s guests of Honour included MEC for Sports, Arts, Culture and Recreation – Me Mmathabo Leeto, Director General from Office of the Premier – Mr Kopung Ralikontsane, the Executive of Mayor of Setsoto – Cllr Nthateng Maoke and other distinguished guests.