Seanokeng Camp Festival to promote tourism
Nnasaretha Kgamanyane | Sunday November 5, 2023 06:00
The festival has partnered with The Voice newspaper to make it a success. Addressing the gathering during the launch of the event hosted a stone's throw away from Limpopo River at Ramotlabaki village recently, The Voice newspaper managing director, Gomolemo Kasale, said celebrating 30 years of existence allowed them to pause and reflect on what they have achieved particularly in the entertainment space. He added that their newspaper recognises the idea that entertainment and information were not separate entities. Kasale explained that Seanokeng Limpopo Camp Festival was a veldt-bush event for elders who want to explore cultural exchange, unwind off-grid and listen to good live music while watching the beautiful African sunset. He added that the event’s primary goal was to market and celebrate hidden treasures of Bakgatla heritage that include many tourist attractions in Botswana.
“We have played an important role in the development and nurturing of the entertainment industry over the years. For the longest time, our paper has been sectionalised and most of the pages have been allocated to entertainment. In the past, we had 12 pages just for entertainment but because of economic pressures we reduced to eight pages,” Kasale said. “We still give the entertainment section prominence. When talking about the events, I believe we have done a lot through partnering with events that started from nothing and became the biggest in the country and we continue to partner with events of any kind to keep our entertainment industry alive,” he said.
He added that 10% of the event’s proceeds would be given to the Village Development Committee (VDC) to assist in village developments such as building a campsite next to the river. He also said he wanted the VDC to construct a campsite where tourists would camp when coming for the event. He added that the VDC must also make a recreation centre that would attract tourism. However, he said these brilliant ideas they have could only become a reality with the support from the private sector and government entities. For his part, the co-organisor, Tumelo Lekolwane, from Indigenous Routes promised that they would ensure top-notch security at the event adding that there would be barricades at the event to restrict people from falling in water. He said he went to stay in Ramotlabaki intending to have a cattle post but was breath taken by the beauty of the village.
He said the village possesses a beautiful tourist attraction site, which should be shared with the rest of Batswana and the world. “Many people do not know this place. I am certain that many people do not even know that we have a confluence in the southern part of this country where Notwane and Limpopo rivers meet. “We have another confluence at Kasane and I believe this is the only one in the northern part of the country. Together with my friend and partner, Tsitsi Kasale, we decided to conceptualise an event which will market and put this place on the map hence our decision to come up with this event,” he pointed out. He also said they would have many activities including mokoro ride, horse riding, drinking at the confluence, quad bikes, fishing, music performances and more.
The Assistant Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, Mabuse Pule, said less than a year ago, they participated in the Annual Dinokeng Fish Festival in Oliphant’s Drift, which provided a platform for established and emerging aqua-culture and aqua-tourism market opportunities. He added that those initiatives were motivated by their communities’ desire and commitment to promote local production and consumption of goods and services as well as the need to develop new sources of growth, reduce the import bill and explore export markets.