PEOPLE wanted a better show and they got a revamped Transnet Foundation and Sowetan Massed Choir Festival in Johannesburg at the weekend, writes Victor Mecoamere .
PEOPLE wanted a better show and they got a revamped Transnet Foundation and Sowetan Massed Choir Festival in Johannesburg at the weekend, writes Victor Mecoamere .
Loyal customers of Transnet Foundation's transportation services, Sowetan's news, information and entertainment content and friends of the two partners' nation-building work were treated to an enthralling Mafikizolo special reunion rendition of popular songs O Tswa Kae, Marabi and Ndihamba Nawe by the inimitable Theo Kgosinkwe and Nhlanhla Nciza. Both are currently crafting solo careers.
Other star attractions were festival leaders Mokale Koapeng and Ludumo Magangane. The two are also highly-reputable composers, arrangers and orchestrators with national and international experience.
They arranged and orchestrated the three Mafikizolo pieces and conducted the duo, together with soloist tenor Wayne Mkhize, soprano Andiswa Makana, mezzo soprano Tina Mene, bass singer Ebenezer Sawuli. They also conducted championship-winning choirs Matthews Singers, Belcanto Voices, Gauteng Choristers, South African Police Service Choir and the Transnet Choir as well as the equally competent regulars - Vaal Choristers, African Sweet Melodies, Mogale City Chorale and East Rand Chorale.
In keeping with this almost peerless nation-building and corporate social investment and responsibility project's established tradition, African music icon Mosoeu Michael Moerane was honoured through the mass choir rendition of his timeless song, Ruri.
The festival is on the Transnet Foundation's list of corporate social investment and responsibility projects. This includes Phelophepa, a community-based primary healthcare service on wheels that services poor communities near major railway routes. The event is the pride of the nation-building projects initiated by the late Sowetan editor-in-chief Aggrey Klaaste, after setting a trend as a visionary of goodwill, brotherhood and peace.