CALL FOR REGIONAL CHORAL COMPETITIONS

MBABANE – Involve other regions!

This past weekend at the Ntjilo Ntjilo choral finals there was a cause for concern over the competition being held between the Mbabane, Manzini corridor, leaving out people who are in the outskirts. This concern was raised by the CEO of The Eswatini Arts and Culture Council, Stanley Dlamini during his speech at the competition. Dlamini highlighted the fact that there was a huge need for regional choral competitions in order to un-earth most of the talent that the kingdom has to offer. “Through our gathering today, one can tell that there is abundant talent in the country, but were only getting a glimpse of it because people who are in the outskirts of these two major towns, Mbabane and Manzini cannot make it here. An Olympic gold medal winner once said that he appreciated the award but it wasn’t as rewarding as it would have been if the competition included people from all the parts of the country who couldn’t afford to make it to the competition,” mentioned Dlamini.

Its worth noting that in some parts of the world like Paris, France laws have been set as agreements put forward, for the development of those countries. These agreements state that regional competitions hold great potential for both developed and developing jurisdictions in a country by promoting convergence in competition laws and instruments, ensuring effective and efficient results. It was deem necessary because the overall winner would confidently represent the country and that particular country would know that they are represented by the best that they have. The need for regional outreach programmes of this kind was also seen as a need by the main organiser and some of the participating contestants of the Ntjilo Ntjilo competition which was held on Sunday at Happy Valley Hotel.

Finals

One of the contestants, Nondumiso Msibi shared that she would have missed the finals if it wasn’t for a Good Samaritan who gave her a lift from Siteki to Manzini, cutting her long trip to Ezulwini shorter. She further mentioned that there were tons of great singers from her area who never even tried to enter into the competition because they would have been restricted by transportation funds to make it. Mathokoza Sibiya, the Festival Chairperson said the purpose of the competition was to help young people deal with social-economic issues and also create a podium for them to showcase their talent. “Most young people are full of anger and have low self-esteem as a result of various social ills, such as lack of education, poor academic performance, physical and emotional abuse, poverty and  loneliness, among others. Giving others an opportunity to enter would help young people on a larger scale.”

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