By Matampane Raymond Mokwena
A documentary (Kathorus the history) which took 14 years of compilation, revealing all the historical events that contributed to what Kathorus is today was officially broadcasted during a cinematography event themed ‘Stru films festival’ hosted by the Ekurhuleni Arts and Culture Recreational Forum on the 3rd of February 2020.
The documentary which was assembled by a filming duo( Mphonyana Matelile and Sikhumbuzo Sithebe) commenced with displaying that Germiston and Johannesburg were the first towns where gold was discovered in Gauteng, with that in place migrants started to flock into those areas in numbers and that’s how townships in Ekurhuleni developed, breathing life to the likes of Dukathole, Katlehong and Thokoza; the documentary even shed light that the famously known OR Tambo airport was firstly based between Katlehong and Thokoza and it was previously named Palmeitfontein airport, the filmed documentary went as far as displaying the horrendous occurrences of the 1990 tribal war between the Zulus and Xhosas in the Kathorus area.
Sikhumbuzo Sithebe said, “I’m emotional today as we display our compiled filmed documentary, there are no blank pages in history, through our documentary we are trying to re-tell truthful historical events without fear or favour, we believe there are so many untold stories about our area; we have a rich history in Kathorus ,but we just need good platforms to display it,” Sithebe disclosed.
Mphonyana Matelile also disclosed, “We have compiled information that is very essential and some of it can cause so much chaos in the Ekurhuleni region, because its information that involves a lot of people’s lives, not the lies that we usually see or hear about, we have been researching and gathering information from 2007, but we haven’t stopped. Our only concern is that over the years we have been losing people who are carrying information about those historical events; we plea with people who have information to come forward and share it, we would like to thank the Ekurhuleni Arts and Culture Recreational Forum for giving us this opportunity through their initiative called ‘Stru films festival. He elaborated further saying: “We appreciate all the stakeholders who were involved towards this project, this documentary serves as a medium of information about the history that was never told about Kathorus,”Mphonyana Matelile expressed.
Jabulane Tabudi the Chairperson of the Ekurhuleni Arts and Culture Recreational Forum alluded that, “this is the first initiative of the Ekurhuleni Arts and Culture Recreation forum this year, however this event was postponed Last year, it covers the historical events that happened in Katlehong during the apartheid era and after that, as an organisation we want to enforce the nature of filming documentaries because with that in motion we will be archiving things that are happening in our communities; in Ekurhuleni alone we can create films that will win awards based on the golden history we have as you have witnessed today,” he disclosed.
During the event, Nthabeleng Phoka( Audience and Skills Development Project Manager) from the Gauteng Film Commission was present to inform the film makers on how to apply for funding towards their filming projects.
