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Sketchproductions, Diepkloof (2026)

16/02/2026

"You can't bury a seed"

16/02/2026

The fast growing independent festival in Gauteng happening The TX Theatre Thembisa theatre week.

15/02/2026

" Vumbi"
The Dust We Breathe
A reflection on a community slowly suffocating under the weight of corruption. When corruption becomes the very air people breathe, survival turns into an act of quiet resistance. The dust hangs in the streets, settles in homes, coats bodies and consciences alike, blurring the line between victim and accomplice. Set in a community trapped between broken promises and stolen futures, the work traces how corruption infiltrates everyday life: in leadership, in systems meant to protect, and in the silences people learn in order to endure. What begins as distant misconduct becomes intimate, entering lungs, shaping choices, eroding dignity, and normalising injustice. Children inherit it unknowingly, elders carry it with exhaustion, and the community learns to breathe shallowly just to stay alive. How do people live when the air itself is poisoned? What does resistance look like when escape feels impossible? And can a community remember how to breathe freely again? The Dust We Breathe is not only a lament, but a call to consciousness. It exposes the invisible violence of corruption and insists that naming the poison is the first act of reclaiming breath, life, and collective dignity.

15/02/2026

"Vumbi"The Dust We Breathe

Vumbi is a reflection on a community slowly suffocating under the weight of corruption. When corruption becomes the very air people breathe, survival turns into an act of quiet resistance. The dust hangs in the streets, settles in homes, coats bodies and consciences alike, blurring the line between victim and accomplice. Set in a community trapped between broken promises and stolen futures, the work traces how corruption infiltrates everyday life: in leadership, in systems meant to protect, and in the silences people learn in order to endure.

What begins as distant misconduct becomes intimate, entering lungs, shaping choices, eroding dignity, and normalising injustice. Children inherit it unknowingly, elders carry it with exhaustion, and the community learns to breathe shallowly just to stay alive. How do people live when the air itself is poisoned? What does resistance look like when escape feels impossible? And can a community remember how to breathe freely again? The Dust We Breathe is not only a lament but a call to consciousness. It exposes the invisible violence of corruption and insists that naming the poison is the first act of reclaiming breath, life, and collective dignity.

14/02/2026

Vumbi “The Dust We Breathe”

Vumbi is a searing drama reflection on a community slowly suffocating under the weight of corruption. When corruption becomes the very air people breathe, survival turns into an act of quiet resistance. The dust hangs in the streets, settles in homes, coats bodies and consciences alike, blurring the line between victim and accomplice. Set in a community trapped between broken promises and stolen futures, the work traces how corruption infiltrates everyday life: in leadership, in systems meant to protect, and in the silences people learn in order to endure.

14/02/2026

The State of Art in South Africa: Navigating the Divide of Wealth, Race, and Access

By Paul Noko

South Africa’s vibrant artistic landscape mirrors its complex history and socio-economic divides. While the country boasts a rich cultural heritage and worldrenowned institutions, stark disparities continue to influence who participates in and benefits from the arts. A Legacy of Division: Art, Race, and Wealth. Historically, apartheid policies entrenched racial segregation, and these divisions persist today, though in different forms. The arts sector reflects this legacy, with a noticeable divide between predominantly white institutions and black artists. White dominated arts Scene, Institutions like the Baxter Theatre, Arts Cape, Roodepoort, Joburg theatre, Pacofs, Market theatre, Montecasino, Theatre at the square and many others across the country, centres crucial to South Africa’s performing arts. Historically, these theatres primarily served white audiences and artists, benefiting from better funding, infrastructure, and access. Many of these institutions continue to enjoy state support and international recognition, often perceived as the flagship of South African arts.

Black Artists and Limited Access. Meanwhile, black artists, especially in townships and rural, face significant barriers. Limited funding, fewer platforms, and socio-economic challenges restrict their opportunities. Despite the rich talent, access to mainstream theatres is often limited, compelling many black artists to seek opportunities elsewhere to feed self and family. The Role of Key Cultural Spaces. Cape Town’s Arts Scene Cape Town hosts a number of prominent theatres and arts spaces, but historically, black artists have faced obstacles breaking into these institutions. Many black artists from Cape Town’s townships, feeling marginalized, often travel to Johannesburg seeking broader exposure and more vibrant arts communities.

Johannesburg, South Africa’s economic powerhouse, has become the epicenter for many artists. The city’s diverse and dynamic arts scene offers more opportunities for emerging black artists, more independent spaces in Joburg that provides platforms for black voices and stories. The city’s relative economic vitality and more inclusive arts policies make it an attractive destination for artists across the country. Despite these hubs, access remains uneven. Many artists from marginalized backgrounds struggle with limited funding, lack of training opportunities, and infrastructural challenges. State support often favors established institutions, leaving emerging or community based artists on the periphery.

Why Do Black Artists from Cape Town, KZN, Mpumalanga, North West, and other provinces move to Johannesburg? Many black artists move from their townships or Rural area to Johannesburg for several reasons: Better Opportunities: Johannesburg’s larger and more diverse arts scene offers more gigs, exhibitions, and performance spaces. Visibility and Exposure: The city’s vibrant cultural scene provides increased exposure to industry stakeholders, media, and audiences. Networking: Johannesburg’s arts institutions and festivals facilitate networking that can lead to career advancement. Historical and Cultural Dynamics: Johannesburg’s history as a hub of activism and cultural expression makes it a natural magnet for artists seeking a platform for their voices. You can't gatekeep us in Gauteng, its not a one man show, tbeirs too many opptions and if you good you good.

The Future of Arts in South Africa needs to be addressed and addressing the disparities in access and opportunity requires systemic change. Initiatives aimed at supporting black artists, expanding funding for community arts, rural and creating inclusive policies. Programs that foster arts education in townships and rural areas can help bridge the divide. Moreover, fostering collaboration between established institutions and grassroots communities can ensure a more equitable arts landscape. As South Africa continues to evolve, its arts sector must reflect the diversity of its people, offering platforms for all voices to be heard.

South Africa’s art scene is a mirror of its socio economic and racial realities. While significant strides have been made, disparities persist, shaping who creates, who performs, and who benefits from the arts. Recognizing and addressing these divides can help unlock the nation’s full creative potential and build a more inclusive cultural future.

13/02/2026

Vumbi is a searing drama reflection on a community slowly suffocating under the weight of corruption. When corruption becomes the very air people breathe, survival turns into an act of quiet resistance. The dust hangs in the streets, settles in homes, coats bodies and consciences alike, blurring the line between victim and accomplice. Set in a community trapped between broken promises and stolen futures, the work traces how corruption infiltrates everyday life: in leadership, in systems meant to protect, and in the silences people learn in order to endure.

05/02/2026

Shout out to my newest followers! Excited to have you onboard! Terrence Nkosi, Xesibe Bouy

27/01/2026

With National Arts Festival Makhanda – I'm on a streak! I've been a top fan for 7 months in a row. 🎉

27/01/2026

When Creativity Meets Barriers: Why Disability Artists Are Sideline in the Arts World?
by Paul Noko

The world’s cultural landscape is rich with stories, voices, and expressions yet far too many talented artists remain invisible. Among them are creators with disabilities who face not only societal prejudice but also structural barriers that prevent them from fully participating in the creative arts industry. Even when opportunities exist, the processes that are supposed to support inclusion like application forms, grant systems, and artist funding mechanisms are often inaccessible in practice.

Systemic Exclusion in the Arts. Despite global commitments to inclusion such as the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which emphasises cultural participation disabled artists remain underrepresented in the mainstream arts sector. Research from Creative hub highlights that only around 9% of practising professional artists identify as having disability, compared with 18% of the general population living with disability indicating a gap between artistic participation and the broader disability community.

This discrepancy points to a broader problem: the creative ecology is designed for normative bodies and sensory experiences, not for the full diversity of human abilities. Barriers arise in multiple forms:

Inaccessible Application Systems. Many standard application platforms for funding, residencies, or exhibitions are not built with accessibility in mind. For example, blind artists are often unable to use online forms that lack support for screen readers, and there are rarely audio descriptions or alternatives that accommodate non-visual access. Research into cultural policy also shows that complex applications and limited accommodations discourage disabled artists from even trying to apply.

Lack of Meaningful Accommodations. Even when calls for applications encourage “diverse applicants,” they often fail to explicitly offer accessible formats like plain-text, audio, or video prompts. This means that non-visual, non-manual, or neurodivergent applicants are forced to rely on others to complete forms turning independence into a luxury.

Unequal Access to Networks and Decision Making
Funding bodies and juries generally lack, representation from disabled arts professionals. Without lived experience informing decisions, grant criteria can unintentionally exclude those who need accommodations or have non-linear career pathways.

Real Barriers Artists Face. Let’s ground this in lived experience. Inaccessible events and communications. Many disabled artists report being asked intrusive questions about their disability instead of their access needs, or told that a space is “not accessible for you” without offering solutions. This kind of response not only blocks participation but reinforces a sense that the arts world is not for them.

Invisible costs and added burdens. Producing work often costs more for artists with disabilities due to the need for personal assistants, interpreters or adaptive technologies, yet funding schemes lag in covering these essential access costs.

Economic exclusion. Disabled artists frequently earn less, face unstable income, and depend on welfare systems that can penalise creative work making careers in the arts economically unsustainable.

Examples of Inclusive Initiatives (But They Are Not Enough). While systemic barriers persist, innovative programs offer glimpses of what inclusive systems can look like:

Lets have an Arts and Disability Initiative to allow applicants to submit in multiple formats (video, Auslan, audio, handwritten, dictated), making access part of the grant process itself.

Arts and Disability Connect that supports disabled artists with mentoring, training and funding opportunities tailored to their practice, and includes opportunities for audio resources and information sessions. Disability-focused arts organisations that are inclusive theatre companies that will create platforms that centre disabled creativity rather than treating it as an afterthought.

Yet these remain exceptional. Inclusion is not yet systemic. Why It Matters, when disability artists are sidelined. We lose diverse cultural narratives that reflect different ways of being human.

Mainstream arts risk becoming homogenous and ableist valuing only those who fit existing norms. Young creatives with disabilities lack role models and pathways to professional artistic life. Disability art isn’t a niche. It’s part of the full spectrum of human creativity.

What Must Change? Inclusion isn’t something we add on later it must be built into every step of the creative process, from funding forms to exhibition programming.

Here are urgent actions for governments, arts councils, and cultural institutions:

1. Make Accessibility Standard in Applications
Provide multiple accessible formats for applications: screen reader compatible forms, audio prompts, sign language video support, plain-text versions, and assisted submission options.

Include alternatives like oral interviews or recorded responses as valid parts of applications.

2. Fund Access Costs Directly
Grant schemes must budget for disability access costs — interpreters, assistive technologies, personal support workers and adaptive equipment not treat them as optional extras.

3. Inclusive Decision-Making
Ensure disabled artists are part of grant assessment panels and leadership roles so funding priorities reflect lived experience.

4. Proactive Outreach and Support
Actively reach out to disability arts networks and communities, provide pre-application support workshops, and partner with disability organisations to demystify processes.

5. Policy and Accountability
Governments should require reporting on disability inclusion outcomes from publicly funded arts bodies and enforce accessibility standards.

Every artist, regardless of ability, deserves a fair shot at making and sharing their work. The world is poorer when barriers shut out voices. Let’s demand accessible applications, inclusive funding, and creative spaces where disability is not a barrier but part of the rich fabric of culture. Department of Sport, Arts and Culture

24/01/2026

Shout out to my newest followers! Excited to have you onboard! Phelelani Tshabalala, Maximo Chanda, Tebogo Mashilane, Maplan Twalo

16/01/2026

50 years after June 16 1976
Soweto Still Speaks by Paul Noko

On the morning of June 16, 1976, more than 3 000 to 10 000 students from schools across Soweto marched with clarity and courage to protest an education system designed to oppress them a system that forced Afrikaans, the language of the oppressor, on Black children and locked them into a future of limitation. Police responded with teargas and live bullets, killing many children, including Nhlanhla Ndlovu and Mbuyiseni Makhubo and Hector Pieterson, whose tragic image shocked the world.

That moment wasn’t about language alone it was about the right to dignity, equality, and self-determination. It marked a turning point in South Africa’s struggle against apartheid and contributed to global pressure that helped dismantle the regime.

Today, Youth Day stands as an official national holiday a reminder of these sacrifices. What Has Changed? Democracy, voting rights, and legal equality. Apartheid’s laws have been abolished. Black South Africans can vote, run institutions, and claim space in every part of society.

Recognition and memorials. Museums like the Hector Pieterson Museum and public holidays help preserve memory. Greater political participation for youth. Young voices can organise, protest, and enter politics without fear of state repression (in principle).

Formal ending of language dictatorship in schools
The compulsory Afrikaans rule that sparked 1976 was repealed long ago education is now delivered in multiple languages, and curriculum reforms seek inclusivity.

What Still Remains the Same? Deep socio economic inequality. Many young people still struggle with poor school infrastructure, lack of resources, unequal digital access, and unaffordable tertiary education, inequality rooted in apartheid that was never fully corrected.

Poverty, unemployment, and marginalisation
Persistent high youth unemployment and economic exclusion mean many do not feel the freedom promised after apartheid. Too many still see their potential limited by circumstance.

Cultural memory without contemporary platforms
While Sarafina! and other works evoke the spirit of resistance, they are not substitutes for platforms that give voice to real lived experiences today. Many young people feel the stories are told about them rather than with them, repackaged without connecting to present battles for justice.

Is Sarafina! Enough? Is It a True Reflection? Sarafina! both the iconic stage musical and the 1992 film adaptation is one of the most recognised artistic representations of the Soweto Uprising. It captures the spirit of protest, courage, and collective resistance among students, and helped global audiences connect emotionally with the struggle. But artistic licence matters:

The film and musicals are fictionalised and dramatized; they are inspired by the spirit of 1976 rather than a strict documentary record. They prioritise symbolic storytelling and musical theatre over the full complexity and brutality of the historical events.

Immediate facts like who was killed, how decisions were made, and the voices of actual participants can get blurred when placed in broad narrative arcs. So while Sarafina! is powerful and necessary for cultural memory, it should not be the only lens through which we understand June 16. Artistic homage without critical historical context risks turning lived experience into folklore honoured but not fully understood.

What We Demand Now?
Honour memory with truth, We call for platforms (in schools, media, arts, textbooks) that center actual testimony from survivors, families, and community historians not only artistic retellings.

Place today’s youth at the dilabitating heritage sites to activate the centers, youth across South Africa face systemic barriers similar in spirit to those of 1976. We demand spaces where youth lead conversations, policies, and initiatives about education, employment, and equity.

Transform education beyond symbols
Make June 16 not just a holiday, but a day of action in schools with open classrooms, debates, and community projects focused on inequality, critical history, and civic engagement.

Support creative voices from the township
Not just revivals of Sarafina!, but new works by young Sowetan artists musicians, filmmakers, writers, and storytellers telling their own stories of struggle and hope.

Policy and accountability
Government and civil society must commit to measurable progress on education inequality, youth unemployment, and community development with clear timelines and transparent reporting.

June 16, 1976, was a moment of courage, a turning point in the fight for freedom. Today, 50 years later, the fight continues not against apartheid, but against the structures that still obstruct true equality. Art like Sarafina! matters, it inspires, it remembers but it cannot by itself tell the full story of struggle, nor light the way forward alone.

Let commemorations be not only about looking back, but about standing up now with memory as fuel, and action as the engine toward the future we were promised.

Sketchproductions

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