Fifteen Mitchell’s Plain primary and high schools were in top form as they took to the Liberty Promenade stage to battle it out, embracing diversity through their musical stage performances.
Top performing schools Eastville, Imperial and Yellowwood primary schools, and Cedar, Spine and Lentegeur high schools each won R10 000 during the shopping centre’s annual showcase for the Mitchell’s Plain community, on Saturday August 18.
The winning team and their accompanying teachers will also walk away with Liberty Promenade gift cards to the value of R350 for pupils and R1 000 for teachers.
For the past six years the centre has run the successful Generation Green Recycled Fashion Show but this year it was a musical showcase of exceptional talents, while promoting greater tolerance of differences in culture, race, religion and gender orientation.
Pupils were tasked with presenting a five-minute performance, including a song, a medley of songs, a skit, poem, dance or any other artistic expression, themed “embracing diversity”.
Brian Unsted, Liberty Two Degrees Asset Management executive, said: “This is the time for the youth to express their true voice on embracing diversity and building a fully inclusive future for South Africa.”
Brenda Bibby, general manager for Liberty Promenade, said they wanted to create an opportunity for the youth to showcase their exceptional talents while promoting greater tolerance of differences in culture, race, religion, and gender orientation.
In her poem, Spine Road High School pupil Mariam Doutie said she and her friends found strength in their differences and bonded over their similarities.
“When you see through your eyes,
When you see us through your eyes,
You see that we’re different
But if you looked through your heart,
You’ll see that we all are the same,” she said.
Rapper Zubair Rainers, 9, from Yellowwood Primary School, also known as Zubiecpt, said he realised while working on the skit that it was all about being unique.
“It is about me being myself, and not like other people,” he said.