09/07/2025
08 July 2025
Media Release
MACUFE RELAUNCH:
BACK TO OUR AFRICAN HEART AND SOUL
Following the 2025 State of the Province Address by the honourable Premier Maqueen Letsoha-Mathae, as well as the 2025 Budget Vote injunction of the Department of Sport, Arts, Culture and Recreation (SACR), the Mangaung African Cultural Festival (MACUFE) will be relaunched in September 2025.
Preparatory work is already underway in the Department of SACR to give effect to the directive for the implementation of a recalibrated MACUFE programme with emphasis on culture, heritage and tradition. The planned presentation of the Sesotho Musical Theatre as part of the MACUFE Theatre Programme as well as the Traditional Dance productions as part of the MACUFE Dance Fiesta, amongst others, underpins the cultural and heritage oriented nature of the recalibrated MACUFE programme.
“Guided by the theme ‘Back to our African Heart and Soul’, the central focus of the recalibrated MACUFE programme will be on arts and culture related activities. Reverting back to its original concept, the festival will therefore elevate the African cultural heritage as a pivot around which our existence should revolve as Africans, and in line with the mandate of the Department of nation building and social cohesion”, stated the Member of the Executive Council for SACR, Me Ntombizanele Sifuba.
The relaunch programme of the festival is anticipated to unfold as follows:
• MACUFE Launch: 01 August
• MACUFE Film Festival: 3 and 4 September
• MACUFE Dance Fiesta: 3 and 4 September
• MACUFE Theatre Festival: 3 to 5 September
• MACUFE Comedy and Poetry Night:5 September
• MACUFE Visual Arts, Craft and Literature Exhibition: 3 to 6 September
• MACUFE Hiphop v/s Amapiano: 5 September
• MACUFE Main Festival: 6 September
• MACUFE Gospel Festival: 7 September
It is further planned that this festival must continue to build on the positive socio-economic outcomes of the previous editions. These outcomes were underscored by the Socio-Economic Impact Study conducted by the University of the Free State: Local economic beneficiation for local entrepreneurs; increased tourism footprint into the province; participation benefits to local artists and so on. The relaunched MACUFE programme will intensify and escalate these local beneficiation outcomes.
More details around the 2025 MACUFE programme will be communicated in due course.
Issued by the Free State Department of Sport, Arts, Culture and Recreation (DSACR)
Media Enquiries:
Tankiso Zola
Department Spokesperson
Cell: 082 940 2392
Email: [email protected]
