Our inaugural Twitter Space took place on 22 March 2023. This 90-minute conversation focused on on “#MusicalGP – What does this mean for our Creative Economy? How to use musical offerings to promote places, people, spaces, and culture.”
Hosted by our Head of Destinations Marketing Barba Goaganediwe, the space featured three exclusive guests – Dr Unathi Henama, Zikie Molusi and Lorato Tshenkeng.
As key representatives of their various roles in the tourism, events, entertainment and music industries, our guests provided food for thought on the dynamics of using music to create good business, patriotic values and deepen culture and representation.
Listen to the entire Twitter Space here!
Some interesting thoughts from our guests:
“Like many rural towns, the economic migrants had to leave Taung to seek economic opportunities elsewhere, particularly the mining towns like Rustenburg, Carltonville and the likes, leave the rural areas with little. There are few to none employers. Typically it would be Government, Retail and Agriculture or whichever industry is thriving there. When you then have DJ Nation packaging a product that is able to converge having a whole of people coming from everywhere across the country, you now realise it’s not about the name or the town itself but about economic activity. That’s one of the best things that come out of how you look at music.” Lorato Tshenkeng
“Whenever you are in these rural towns, you get a sense that even taxi drivers themselves, ferrying people from one place to another, whether a short or long distance will use music to remind people where they are from. If you think of Sho Madjozi as an example; she hails from a very small town in Limpopo but is celebrated the world over. I guess the importance here, like the Motswako genre, there was not a need to conform because everyone is doing their music in English because they want their verses to be heard; they want people to understand the music. They understood that music as an artform is quite universal. It will connect with people even if they do not understand the lyrics.” Zikie Molusi
“Music Tourism is a subsect of cultural tourism which is what is unique about a people, their way of life and music is a big aspect of our way of life as South Africans. It is finding a space academically, primarily driven by University of North-West which is a big focus on events. And I think as traditional smaller Black Universities, more can be done in researching musical festivals. Walter Sisulu University has done some excellent research on the Buyel’Ekaya Festival which happens in the Eastern Cape town of East London. Remember when Big Nas was singing ‘Woza Durban’, that’s because the municipality had to sit them down and say Here’s an opportunity and if you look at their videos, they are doing the rickshaw, showing people enjoying themselves by visiting attractions on the beachfront, and in clubs in Durban. That’s how then people sought to go to Durban to enjoy this thing, it’s because they saw it in the music.” Dr Unathi Henama
Our next Twitter Space will focus on #GautengMeansBusiness and everything that the City of Gold has to offer for building better and more sustained business. Watch our social channels for details.
Gauteng Tourism broadly carries a dual mandate: on the one hand to position Gauteng as a globally desired destination through its marketing and promotion efforts and on the other, to manage Gauteng as a globally competitive destination through ensuring that it is a value – for – money destination and ensuring that it develops products that respond to tourist demands.
Learn more here: https://www.gauteng.net/gta-home/about-gauteng-tourism-authority/
