Creative Duo Sugar – Ray Tladi and Tank Khumalo

By Emily Setona

QWAQWA – The culture house is where the premiere of a brand-new documentary that was inspired by the work of Lehlohonolo Mabaso a poet and community leader.

Executive producer and writer Sugar – Ray Tladi and director Tankiso Khumalo who is fondly known as “Tank” worked hard to create this insightful documentary that is being broadcast on national television.

At the centre of this documentary are issues that are very important to the community of Maluti – a – Phofung (MAP), clean up campaigns and food gardens. According to Lehlohonolo Mabaso dumping sites are a prevalent thing in his community and upon seeing a friend of his eating from a dumping site he decided to organise others to help him clean up the dumping sites and soon thereafter they started creating food gardens.

“What inspired me to write this documentary about Lehlohonolo Mabaso is the fact that he was introduced to me as the leader and founder of Qwakanda a non-profit company that is focused on addressing social ills in the community. My task was to bring to life the story of this young man who the community already identified as a local hero so that it speaks to the entire nation,” Tladi said.

As a director who has worked on many other productions Khumalo came on board as the creative and technical mind in the execution of this project. “I had to do justice to the beauty of Qwaqwa and tell this story in a way that clearly defines who the people of Qwaqwa are. A humble and proud people who live in this beautiful mountainous area with so much potential,” Khumalo said.

Both Tladi and Khumalo are born in Qwaqwa and have come home to share their love of storytelling and a high level of professionalism in the film and video production media that they’ve learned through their experiences out there, with the community of Qwaqwa.