Every evening the corridors of Sivile Primary School in Khayelitsha resound with song. For commuters navigating their way through the traffic from the city bowl to the township, the sounds are like audio flashlights guiding the work-worn home.
Sivile – like many of its counterparts in the Western Cape – stands tall on a platform of outstanding choral achievement. Since the start of the annual Tirisano Schools Choral Eisteddfod in 2000, the primary school has consistently been acclaimed for its repertoire. In 2001, it scooped most of the prizes in the primary schools section. In 2002 it won third prize in the Afrikaans category – an achievement made all the more noteworthy by the fact that Afrikaans is the school’s second language.
In fact, choral achievements are aplenty at primary and secondary schools on the Cape Flats. Fezeka, Sinethemba and Luhlaza Secondary schools, for example, are now automatically associated with musical achievement in choral genres ranging from classical opera to contemporary African songs.
With such outstanding track records, you’d expect these schools to be kitted out with state-of-the-art training facilities and specialised tutors, right? Uh, not quite. Schools like Sivile can’t even rely on a tuned piano for musical accompaniment. Mind you though, the school does boast a keyboard donated by a benevolent tourist.
But what it lacks in physical resources it compensates for in dedicated staff, a committed principal and enough talent to fill the State Theatre.
Because there is neither space in the curriculum nor the classroom to accommodate music tuition at Sivile during school hours, Phumla Mayaba has to fit in choir practice afterwards. She has assumed the responsibility of choirmaster despite the fact that she’s already providing general academic tuition to Sivile learners. For as long as Sivile can’t afford to employ a separate, qualified educator for arts and culture tuition as part of the curriculum, music remains a strictly after-hours indulgence.
‘We’re a very small school with no facilities, so it’s difficult to express ourselves in extramural activities such as rugby or other school sports,” explains Jeffrey Buwa, Sivile’s principal for the past 13 years, ‘which makes music our major extra-mural activity”.