Johnpheko M. Maphakela has made the residents of Indermark so happy by bringing them the Blouberg Cultural Extravaganza Heritage day Celebration

Johnpheko M. Maphakela is the son of Esther Makgoboko Maphakela residing at Indermark, Dikgomong.  He attended Boikhutso primary School and finished at Marumofase Community High. After matric he went to study filming and TV production at UJ at Johannesburg. John was born in the village of Indermark.

 " With this event Blouberg Cultural Exrtravanganza Heritage day celebration we celebrate our heritage day and culture. We started it because we saw that in Indermark there has never been an unique event like this one. Where young and old people meet together to enjoy heritage day, " said Johnpheko M

 This event was funded by National Arts Council as well as department of sports and culture, what they were trying to achieve here is to give artists, a platform to showcase their talents. They had lines up of over 30 ensembles. Johnpheko M looked around and noticed that Indermark has hidden talent  people need to know about it , they have talents but it dies in the village.  Young people can sing, they can dance, and they can do comedy, but they can't get opportunities because they are under siege.

 So the mandate of National Arts and Culture is to give young people a platform to expose their talents, they have partnered with Johnpheko M Maphakela to empower Blouberg community because events like this one are happening mostly in Gauteng . We thank John for bringing it to Senwabarwana, everyone has given a platform to showcase their talents.

 " The event itself was a success and I see people are happy and i think we have done a good job. As a filmmaker by profession I am making a movie at the moment, there is a movie that I am working on around Senwabarwana not necessarily in Indermark  because making movies is very expensive , because the actors have to be paid, vidoemakers and photographers they need to get paid as well. Because movies are business, we need talented people, we can't just take anyone we are in a process to search highly talented individuals for our movies, " said Johnpheko.

 Johnpheko says he wants to develop Indermark and Senwabarwana artists in general because they don't have support from the community.  For a community to develop youth need people with deep knowledge of art .  He noted that young people who are talented in art and acting are the ones you find on the streets smoking marijuana and drugs because they have no support.  And no is giving them a platform to excel, so when they do an event like this they are helping our fellow youth to get off the street and keep them busy.  Because nowdays jobs are not there anymore thus we are helping young people to create something for themselves.

 " I played a huge role in Indermark with this event, i think we showed the residents and the country at large that our youth need what we did. These are the beginnings of great things yet to come and we will continue to helping  young people to showcase their talents. Many people came to me saying they are very very grateful for this unique event to showcase young people talents. I was impressed also that Bana Ba kgotso Gospel Choir  came to me and say they're so grateful  for the opportunity, I believe this choir is helping the community to get kids off the streets and reducing drugs abuse, they practice twice a week to get young people off the street, " concluded Johnpheko M. Maphakela.