CAMPUS NEWS
A Campus of many Cultures
O
Haseena Saley & Rabia Moosa
On 24 September 2014, our campus hosted its annual
Cultural Day in celebration of South Africa’s national
Heritage Day. We had students from our sister campuses Potchefstroom and Mafikeng also attending the
event; with the day filled with perfect weather that complimented all the different colours of the different cultures. The MCs for the day were Gomolemo and Matt
from our campus radio station RiverFM. The judging
panel included Prof. Thanyani Mariba, Prof. Susan Coetzee Van Rooy (Faculty of Humanities), Mr. Johannes
Mahlasela (School of Languages), Ms Lethiwe Kubheka
and Mrs Beata Siejek (our lovely editor’s mother). Needless to say they had a tough job on the day.
The day started off with a melodious performance by our
very own campus choir “The Voices of the River Choir”.
We were then graced with a performance by the talented students from our sister campus, Potchefstroom.
There after the judges took to the stalls.
Stalls:
Residences that participated included:
• Acacia – Represented the US culture. They had their
very own Minnie Mouse, Statue of Liberty and the very
beautiful Marilyn Monroe. Their theme was Texas and
Hollywood. They had foods such as sloppy joes and ribs
with Pepsi and Lemonade to drink. For dessert they had
waffles.
• Oryx – Represented the Cuban culture. With their very
own Mafia movement, samba/salsa dancers. They had
Cuban delicacies like spicy chicken cabaña with couscous, traditional bread pudding and to drink, tasty strawberry peppermint and kiwi mojitos.
• Faranani – Represented our very own isiZulu culture.
From the traditional clothing wear to the pots that they
cooked in. They prepared mugodu(tripe), a traditional
stew and phuthu (pap) and traditional African beer.
• Thuthuka – Represented the Scottish culture. They
had their very own Scottish bar set up, wearing traditional Scottish kilts. They had a wide variety of foods
including rice and stew, a roasted chicken stuffed with
mince, garlic bread, sausages and egg rolls. They had
French whiskey to drink and for dessert they had strawberry muffins, milk tart and pancakes.
Departments that participated included:
• The Vice Rector’s office – Represented the Indian culture. Dressed in traditional saris, kurtas and kurtees.
The Vice Rector’s office had mouth-watering delights for
starters such as samosas(chicken, mutton and cheese),
sausages, and vegetarian spring rolls. The main course
was beef sheen with veggies and Ginger beer to drink.
• The School of Accounting Sciences – Represented
6 - Student 24/7
a proudly South African culture. They had a balanced
set up, from their debit pot, to their credit. A simple set
up because everyone knows, wherever there’s a tree,
a braai can start. To eat, the School of Accounting sciences had a beans salad (being bean counters), homemade potbrood, droewors, stew, and for dessert they
had Amarula ice cream.
• Student Affairs – Represented our very own Setswana
culture. Dressed in traditional Setswana attire, student
affairs was a knockout with their food. They had ting
(cultural/sour pap), mosoko (porridge), morogo (spinach), matsetserepa (chicken feet), scones prepared on
the ground, malamogodu(tripe) and to drink, they gemmer as well as bujalwa be sestwana (traditional beer).
• Library – The library represented the Sesotho culture. Colourful and well put together. They made foods
such as spinach, they had a pooitjie, dumplings, pap
and sishebo(gravy/sauce), gemmer and African beer to
drink.
Once the judging of the stalls was done, it was time for
some more performances this time from the choir of
the Mafikeng campus. Shortly thereafter the residence
performances began. First was Thuthuka, doing a play
called “Play in a bar”. This play was about Scottish man,
telling his daughter how he’d met her South African
mother in a bar during the rugby world cup years ago.
They were followed by Oryx who did a bilingual play on
the Life and Times of Cuban super star Gloria Estefan.
Thereafter the Mafikeng campus students performed a
dance number. Followed by Faranani who portrayed a
Zulu wedding also in the form of a play. Then a performance by the traditional dancers also of the Mafikeng
campus took place. Lastly, Acacia graced the stage with
a play depicting the Texas and Vegas culture.
Mr Samango handled the vote of thanks and the results
were handed out.
Results were as follows:
DEPARTMENTS:
BEST STALL & CREATIVITY: Student Affairs
BEST FOOD: Accounting Sciences
PRESENTATION: Vice-Rector
OVER-ALL WINNERS: Vice-Rector
RESIDENCES:
BEST STALL : Faranani
BEST FOOD: Faranani
CREATIVITY: Faranani
BEST PERFORMANCE: Thuth խ