SPEAKING NOTES BY HON. EN MTHETHWA, THE MINISTER OF SPORTS, ARTS AND CULTURE ON THE OCCASSION OF THE EVENT TO CELEBRATE THE LIFE OF BABA CREDO MUTWA AT MAGOJANENG, NORTHERN CAPE, ON THE 22ND OF NOVEMBER 2019.
Programme Director:
Mama Virginia Mutwa and our Living Human Treasure Baba Credo Mutwa,
Honourable Premier of the Northern Cape, Dr Zamani Saul,
MEC for Sports, Arts and Culture Ms Bernice Sinxeve,
Kgosi Phethlu,
Executive Mayor of the JTG Municipality Councillor Sofia Mosikatsi,
Mayor of Ga-Segonyana; Councilor Neo Masegela,
The Mutwa Foundation,
Members of the Media.
Ladies and gentlemen.
We have gathered here this morning to celebrate a life of a living legend, a person who through force of example has demonstrated the wisdom and the knowledge of African societies as we interacted with nature and the environment around us.
We are gathered here today to celebrate the life of one of South Africa's most senior citizens whose work and life has had an influence in various aspects of our Arts Culture and Heritage.
The Department of Sports, Arts and Culture has a programme where we recognise and celebrate South Africans who possess rare and valuable skills and knowledge that they have acquired from their elders and are willing to share with the future generations.
These Indigenous Knowledge Holders in the area of Arts Culture and Heritage are our Living Human Treasures.
Baba Credo Mutwa is one of such South Africans who possesses knowledge and skills that need to be celebrated and be shared with our youth, researchers and future generations.
In 2017 i paid a courtesy visit to Baba Credo Mutwa and made a commitment to organise an event to celebrate his life. It was during the visit that I was made aware of the poor state of the House Baba Credo Mutwa was living in.
The Premier, myself and the MEC for Sports Arts and Culture agreed that the Provincial Department of Public Works be requested to renovate his house and ensure that it be made into a house where a person of Baba Mutwa’s stature and age can live comfortably.
The renovations to the house was completed in October and today we formally handed back the house to Baba Credo and Mama Virginia Mutwa.
We hope that the renovated house will meet the basic needs of the family and that Baba Credo Mutwa and Mama Virginia will find the house safe and comfortable.
His life history.
Baba Credo Mutwa was born in the South Coast of Kwazulu Natal over nine decades ago. He moved to live with his father in Johannesburg in his youth when his biological mother passed on.
He moved back to live with his grandmother in Kwa-Zulu Natal when his calling to be a traditional healer surfaced. He received training both in Kwa-Zulu-Natal and Swaziland.
As a Traditional Healer uBaba moved back to Gauteng and started a family while living in Soweto. Baba received a piece of land in the sixties from the Opperheimer family where he established his model African village.
Baba Mutwa constructed huts and other houses to represent the ways which different African communities, from Zulu, Sotho and Arabs build their homesteads.
It was during this period that Baba wrote his epic Book titled: Indaba My Children. In the book Baba Mutwa is educating us about the way of life of African People from the cradle to the grave.
The Department of Sports, Arts and Culture will work to ensure that the copyright of this great book is returned to the Mutwa family so that the royalties accrued from the sale are credited to the rightful owners.
Baba Mutwa moved from Soweto in 1976 and established another cultural village outside Mahikeng in the North West.
In the cultural village in the North West Baba Mutwa continued with his theme of depicting the way of life of African communities through their homebuilding.
Baba finally moved from the North West and settled here in Magojaneng where we are celebrating his long and illustrious life.
As we have observed, in all places that Baba Mutwa has lived, he built big and small sculptures using, clay and scrap metal.
These works of art need to be curated and preserved by Professional Art Curators and Preservers.
The Department of Arts and Culture will discuss with both the Credo Mutwa Foundation and Mama Virginia Mutwa to find a way to have Baba Mutwa Artworks Preserved and curated in a Museum so that all South Africans and the world can appreciate them in an accessible setting.
We need as government to ensure that the legacy of this great South African Sculpture, Writer and Isanusi or Prophet is preserved for future generations
The Artworks done by Baba need to be valuated by qualified experts. The artworks need to be housed in a conducive environment.
On behalf of my Department and all South Africans, I wish Baba Credo Mutwa and his Wider Family a good life and good health.
In his lifetime the Department of Sports, Arts and Culture has awarded him the Lifetime Achievement Award for his contribution in preserving the African Cultural Legacy. This was conferred to him in 2018.
In over 9 decades of his life Baba has lived in more than 4 Provinces of our country. In each place that he has touched he leaves a legacy for generations to come.
In all the Provinces where he had lived and beyond we would encourage that society and scholars engages his works to better understand the evolution of our Africaness.
Thank you for the wisdom and the beautiful Artworks that continue to inspire efforts in healing our nation. To use Baba Mutwa’s words:
“As Africans we need to appreciate what great people we are and need to stop hating one another.”
Thank you
