Was there anything festive about 2020 festive season? Well wishes and celebrations were echoed by the sadness that the world endured throughout the year. For most South Africans, the festive season is seen as a time to celebrate and spend time with loved ones; this time around it had to be different. The South African tourism industry took a major blow as many entertainment and leisure activities were restricted to the public due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Fortunately with safety being a priority and regulations adhered to, the internationally renowned precinct V&A Waterfront in Cape Town was operating.

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With sustainability, collaboration, creativity and compassion at the core of the precincts festivities this season, great efforts were made to restore hope in a meaningful way that many appreciated. Their formidable community of more than 450 shops, 180 business tenants, 101 entertainment activities and more than 80 eateries; shared a united mission of keeping hope alive. They created a sense of neighbourly belonging and shared thanksgiving, marking it with a symbolic African Tree of Hope as the centerpiece of its message. The Executive Manager for Marketing at the V&A Waterfront, Tinyiko Mageza explained that the lighting of the lanterns on the tree symbolizes joy and outreach to their community.

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On the seventh and last day of its Tribute to Light and Hope series, the V&A shared stories of hope from its community. At midnight on the 31^st of December 2020 the V&A Waterfront shone a light of hope from the precinct which, on clear nights, has been visible throughout the city and surrounding suburbs. The beam, which consisted of 36 vertical searchlights, formed part of the Waterfronts’ Tribute of Light and Hope symbolising the lives that were lost, the jobs that were affected, the coming together of a nation in solidarity and ultimately for hope in the new year.

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The V&A placed the theme of hope in the spotlight by taking a commemorative look back at stories and words from members of the Waterfront’s vast neighborhood and those of the wider Cape Town community, all in the humble name of hope: Phumeza Booi Welisa is a Cape Town mother who struggled to find a school for her autistic son so she started one herself. Hlumelo Educare Centre which she named after her son opened its doors at her home in New Crossroads after she completed a course in educare. The daycare facility which relies on voluntary teacher assistance aims to prepare autistic children for school. Phumeza’s hope is to turn the daycare into a registered early childhood development centre one day.

Continuing the theme of Joy from Africa to the World, the internationally renowned destination, which became the first in the world to produce sustainable festive décor last year, has done it again with the hopes of delighting visitors with the festive displays and installations. The décor came to life under the creative direction of Platform Creative Agency who are 2020’s Business and Arts South Africa’s Innovation Awards winners as well as South African Council of Shopping Centers Footprint Awards’ Bronze Award winners for Community Relations. Platform Creative Agency is a company focused on growing and promoting the South African design, lifestyle and cultural industries and in 2020, 134 crafters and designers have contributed to spreading hope and light through festive décor.

Sizwe Shumane and Mpilo Headman are members of the team who ran the workshops that’s turned plastic bottles into festive shapes that were strung into chandeliers at the Watershed. “I hope that the world will be safer, more people will do what they love and our environment will be everyone’s main priority,” says Shumane. Meanwhile Headman shares that “my hope for the future is that the time I spend with people is not time wasted.”

Tandazani Dhlakama, Assistant Curator at Zeitz MOCAA expresses her message of Hope by saying; “there is no crisis that can completely block out our hopes and dreams. On the continent of Africa, it is our tenacity, philosophy of Ubuntu and our ability to continually reinvent ourselves that upholds us and will continue to keep us moving forward. Designer Thabisa Mjo’s gigantic beaded lampshades were displayed among the V&A’s festive basket installation. As we shift gears into the new year she says; “my hope is for the world to feel normal again. Whatever normal means, and safe.” Zikhona Tefu is the founder of O’live, a natural skincare brand available at the Watershed, adds that “Desmond Tutu once said that hope is about seeing light despite all the darkness. It is so timely that I should remember this now, when darkness has been looming over us.Indeed it through hope that we individually and collectively pushed and continue to push through these overwhelmingly difficult times. Hope tells me there is a better tomorrow, always, a brighter tomorrow.

The beam of light which lit up the Cape Town skyline for an hour at midnight on 31 December 2020 and continued to shine daily for an hour at 21h00 left all of us holding onto a tiny seed, a seed which holds the power to restart entire forests. That seed is called hope.

Tag: Cape Town

The Hope and Light of V&A Waterfront