WeeklySA_AdminHURDLE:Negotiations at advance stage to save future of Funda Community College
By Victor Mecoamere
An enduring campaign to revive Soweto’s white elephant arts and culture hub, Funda Community College in Diepkloof, Soweto, is picking up speed. The man at the helm, veteran artist and academic Motsumi Makhene is oozing with optimism over the project.
“At the heart of this revival is civil society activism and curriculum decolonisation; hence the campaign’s name, ‘67 Days of Volunteerism and Activism’, and which is being conducted under the auspices of the Friends of Funda,” said Makhene, who is formerly the head of the Central Johannesburg Technical College.
Makhene is now retired and focusing artistic and administrative and strategic nous on returning what was previously a peerless township arts and culture hub to its former glory.
The college is best remembered as a talent factory of sorts that has blessed the South African arts and culture world with luminaries like the Khemese brothers, who became the famous Soweto String Quartet, playwright Matsemela Manaka and ballet dance teacher wife, Nomsa.
There were the likes of actor Ali Hlongwane, violinist and mezzo soprano supreme Sibongile Khumalo, audio-visual artists Rapitshe Montsho and Eddie Mbalo, musician Mokale Koapeng, artists and administrators Steven Sack and Charles Mabaso.
Makhene says since May last year, they had been working to repair the neglected infrastructure; rebuild the visual and performing arts programmes as well as also Nomsa Manaka’s community dance programme returning to Funda.
Manaka’s dance studio, which had been situated at the Walter Sisulu Community Centre in Kliptown, Soweto was vandalised during the lengthy Covid-19 related lockdowns late last year.
Speaking to Weekly SA Mirror several weeks ago, a shattered Manaka told Weekly SA Mirror, said her return to continue nurturing dancing talent at the college was a bittersweet homecoming.
“But, at least, we are returning to a safe and secure haven,” she said.
Makhene said: “Community participation and involvement has been increased through seasonal cultural seminars, exhibitions, performances and what we call ‘Stimela Meditations’, in partnership with a Friends of Funda campaigner, Sbu Nxumalo of Zibike, a Diepkloof-based arts and culture movement.”
Makhene and several fundraising, marketing and community development specialists making up the Friends of Funda want to ensure the complex is fully utilised.
While the college was founded with the support of private sector funding and built on land donated by the Urban Foundation and IBM in 1984, Makhene said they had tried, albeit in vain, to obtain a permanent leasing of the complex, after the City of Joburg had put the area on tender.
A tender meant a successful bidder could use the property whichever they wished, and could even close down the arts centre or evict it. But, he said, negotiations were ongoing to find an amicable solution.
Makhene said several celebratory and commemorative events planned for on Friday August 14 would include the opening of the restored 1985 commemorative Funda June ’76 Revolt mural, a dedication of the first phase of the Ezekiel Budeli memorial plot and a round table conversation about his contribution to the Funda Arts Centre and arts education practice.
A tribute to Matsemela Manaka and his Soyikwa Institute of AfriKan Theatre by actor-turned academic Dr Ali Hlongwane, who will essentially share his memories of the Soyikwa journey as a former student.
