By Frederick Philander WINDHOEK Greater involvement by local authorities, traditional leaders and the community at large is needed for art and culture development at the Katutura Community Arts Centre. This is the view of the newly appointed manager of the KACA, Daniel Sakkie Haosemab. The Aranos-born former teacher is to officially start work next Wednesday. The KACA has been without strong leadership since March last year when the then manager, Joseph Madisia, was appointed director of the Namibia National Arts Gallery. “My approach towards the improvement of KACA as an important promoter of arts and culture will be to revisit projects started under the old regime and to continue and complete such initiatives by my predecessor. I think this is very important for continuity in efforts to transform the centre into a more community oriented institution,” said Haosemab, a trained teacher. He has already drawn up a programme for the year, which he and his staff of two will implement consistently in the interest of arts and culture development. “I would like to see that KACA yields more and better quality human resource products through the many art and culture courses currently being presented. After completion of these courses the Namibian should then automatically take over from the foreigners still employed in positions at the centre,” Haosemab, himself an accomplished artist and the father of nine children, said. “If the centre is to achieve greater success it would be important for the City Council of Windhoek, Katutura, the community and traditional leaders to play a more active role in the provision of basically everything important for arts and culture development. (Apparently it has not been the case so far.) Then only will the centre become an acknowledged and recognised community oriented venture,” he said. The new manager says he intends making the KACA a worthwhile art and culture-feeding centre to the whole country. “The centre needs to become the symbol of unification of all artists in Namibia, irrespective of race, religion and creed. Many artists still operate to a large extent in isolation. This is not good for themselves and national patriotism per se. The KACA will act as a catalyst to accommodate any such unification efforts among artists because I believe that through arts people can more easily reconcile with one another,” Haosemab, who previously taught at a school in Okambahe, said. Prior to becoming a teacher he worked as a district literacy officer for the ministry of Education from 1992 to 2004. He then did a course in education management through the University of Potchefstroom before becoming a teacher. As a composer and singer, Haosemab used to perform with the well-known Seeks the Men’s Choir at Khorixas. He has also cut a music CD.