Mohalenyane Phakela
IT is all systems go for the historic Joyous Celebration concert at Maseru’s Setsoto Stadium on Saturday evening.
Event organiser, Cinita Ferreira of Charis’ma Events said all was in place and even the incessant rains were likely to make way for the 38-member South African Gospel ensemble’s debut appearance in Lesotho, bringing to an end the long-standing anticipation of its local fans.
The internationally acclaimed group was formed in 1996, bringing to fruition a project that the trio of Lindelani Mkhize, Mthunzi Namba and Jabu Hlongwane had conceptualised two years earlier when South Africa attained multi-party democracy which brought to an end the minority white rule and racial repression of the country’s majority non-white population under the policy of Apartheid.
To date, the group has released 21 albums and won several honours including the South African Music Awards, Metro FM Music Awards and Crown Gospel Awards.
This week, Ferreira told the Weekender that “we are erecting a very big stage which is about 30 metres wide at Setsoto Stadium and other preparations are also in place as we plan to make this the biggest Gospel music experience the country has ever seen”.
“We have also contacted the Lesotho Meteorological Services enquiring about the Saturday weather and we were assured that there will not be any heavy rainfall and if by any chance it happens to rain that day it will be just a drizzle, which means our God is good and nothing will deter our passion to praise Him that day,” she said.
Ferreira said the band would arrive tomorrow with lead singers expected in the early hours of Saturday.
She also said that due to piracy issues, the use of cameras or videos would not be allowed during the performance.
“The band is very strict about being taken pictures or videos while performing because they have had a bad experience of people selling such material, especially the videos since Joyous’ DVDs are normally live recordings. However, we will arrange for a limited number of media people to take pictures and not videos,” Ferreira said.
Joyous Celebration co-founder Hlongwane as well as Sibusiso Mthembu and Andiswa Mbantsa, who were in the country on 20 January, promised to give Basotho an experience like no other.
“What we can assure Basotho is that they are going to praise God like never before by getting what we call the “Joyous experience”,” Mthembu said, with Hlongwane adding, “The idea is to give the best show, we will perform songs from different albums. We promise a mind-blowing performance as we pour our hearts out”.
