BOT50, a hallucination for entertainers
Sharon Mathala | Wednesday September 28, 2016 15:37
“Ke nako ya gore le rona bo mmasekanta le bo rrasekanta re je.”
When first introduced the celebrations promised a well-deserved harvest period for the local entertainment industry, which has undeniably blossomed over the years. Now more than ever the whole spectrum of the Botswana entertainment industry had gained mass recognition from music, theatre to film and television.
The whole industry stood on its feet when government announced that it had splashed P100 million into the project. The committee also promised that only local companies would benefit from the budget. But what was once a dream come true for the locals turned ugly when it became apparent that only a few were to have the piece of the pie. First it was the local promoters who expressed concerns of being sidelined. The Botswana Entertainment Promoters Association (BEEPA) even reported the BOT50 committee to the Directorate on Corruption and Economic Crime (DCEC) for alleged misuse of funds. Soon after it was a group of artists who also spoke out about favouritism at the BOT50 celebrations. They said that only a few were contracted for the shows leaving out the larger crop.
“For the BOT50 tours around the country they have only contracted a handful of artists. We have different genres and artists, but only a few same faces are appearing,” one of the artists at their meeting held sometime in June said.
The committee responded to some of the complaints by giving the local artists the opportunity to produce the official theme song for BOT50 through their music organisation, Botswana Musicians Union (BOMU) and P 40,000 was awarded for this project. The committee also announced that it would be hosting mini festivals around the country to cover all music genres. It was also alleged that they had given one local company, Adcraft Advertising, for the road shows across 50 villages, a tender amounting to P700,000. Soon after news emerged that for the BOT50 major event, which will be hosted this Friday at the National Stadium, a South African (SA) choreographer was engaged for the half million-pula job.
BOT50 however distanced itself from the appointment of the foreign choreographer saying that the tender was given to a local company.
“We gave out the tender to a local company. Who they choose to engage, is entirely up to them,” BOT50 coordinator Charity Kgotlafela said. Other sources at the international missions have also said that they were not happy with the way the independence budget was being spent.
One source in the UK said: “They are staying at expensive hotels here, and living lavish lives, whilst the rest of Batswana here have been given close to nothing to celebrate our country”.
Another source said, “There is nothing to celebrate this side. I think most of us will celebrate individually because they have not communicated with us, about anything for September 30”.
Initially aiming to leave a legacy, the BOT50 committee in the local entertainment industry leaves little to be desired, considering the amount of money that was budgeted for the celebrations. Once the BOT50 celebrations are done most in the entertainment industry will have little to boast about.