Durban — The deputy mayor of eThekwini Municipality, Zandile Myeni, said part of the City’s initiative was to help artists showcase their talents.
Myeni was speaking at the Walking into Africa-Xu Hongfei Sculpture Exhibition, which took place at the Durban City Hall on Tuesday.
Myeni said this exhibition coincided with Heritage Month in South Africa where diverse cultural heritage was celebrated.
She said they were delighted that the City of Durban had been identified to host this five-day exhibition, as Durban was the 53rd station of Xu Hongfei’s sculpture exhibition world tour.
“This is a vote of confidence that Durban is indeed open for business after experiencing a series of catastrophic events,” she said.
She said it was also important for the City to indicate that they continued to enjoy a mutually beneficial relationship with Guangzhou as a sister city. Guangdong established friendly province relations with KwaZulu-Natal in 2016.
“Also boasting a bustling port, the city of Guangzhou presents a lot of opportunities for Durban as a coastal city in the maritime and oceans economy,” said Myeni.
Moreover, she said the City of Guangzhou also had a thriving creative sector and they continued to draw best practices from each other on how they could grow this sector in eThekwini to address the challenge of unemployment.
Artist Xu Hongfei said he was impressed by the warm culture of the City. He expressed gratitude to the consulate general for the support and other local departments.
“This exhibition would have not been a success without them,” he said.
He added that South African women represented love, happiness and prosperity. The son of the late King Zwelithini ka Bhekuzulu, Prince Buzabazi kaZwelithini, who was at this exhibition, said this was an opportune time to foster the fields of cultural exchange and indigenous knowledge.
“The significant role that cultural currency plays in bolstering economic development for people at a grassroots level positively impacting GDP is unprecedented and needs to be given significant attention. This is the reason we hold in such high esteem the ‘Walking Into Africa’ exhibition by world-renowned sculptor Xu Hongfei,” he said.
He said BRICS had been a game-changer in our society and had proven that much can be done to equal the playing field and incorporate traditional and modern ways of governance.
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