A Heritage Day celebration with Pollsmoor prison staff

Area Commissioner of the facility Ntobeko Mketshane said the purpose of the event was to remind one another where we come from. “We’re picking the pieces of the puzzle that we lost,” said Mketshane.

He said South Africa is faced with a problem of decaying moral values and he believes, “Through [the] heritage event we need to mould our value system and treat people with respect.” Mketshane said culture should not be used to disrespect others but to set an example for inmates through demonstrating tolerance.

Sindezama Loliwe, who is the manager for special programmes at Pollsmoor, was tasked with organising the event. He told GroundUp the aim was to “create a culture of tolerance among the racial and tribal groups working in this facility”.

Loliwe said they tried to represent everyone that works in Pollsmoor, but could not accommodate them all. “We put together all the different cultures that are found in South Africa in a hat and conducted a draw to select those that will feature today,” said Loliwe.

Chosen from the hat were: Afrikaners, Basotho, Coloureds, Indians, Khoisan, Ndebeles, Tswanas, Swatis, Vendas and Zulus. Loliwe said next year they will include those that could not be accommodated in this year’s event.

The Afrikaner stall won best decorated stall at a Pollsmoor Prison Heritage Day event. Picture by Johnnie Isaac.

Judges included members of South African National Defence Force, media houses such as Radio Zibonele, and companies such as Old Mutual. Judges were tasked to give scores for cultural representation, looking at the traditional attire each group wore, traditional singing and dance, decoration of the stall with cultural objects, and preparation of traditional food. Each group also had to present its historic background and stage a short cultural demonstration.

Participants did not necessarily come from the culture they were representing. Mark Shane van Niekerk, a Nutrition Coordinator for Pollsmoor, spent four days “practicing to be a Zulu”.

He said, “We have lots of things in common but we’re just doing them differently.” He said it was a bit harder for him to move his feet as fast as the Zulus in the dance.

The Khoisan were the winners. Their presentation touched on the story of Sarah Baartman.

The Basotho were the runners up; the Zulus won the dance award; the Afrikaners took the award for the best decoration of a stall.

Several participants said they learned much about other cultures through the preparations.

The Basotho cultural presentation was the runner-up at a Heritage Day event at Pollsmoor prison. Picture by Johnnie Isaac.