The BAC Semester Shutdown, which goes down tonight at the institution's campus, is set to be the first major event held by the university in roughly four years. To mark the return of the entertainment side of things at the institution, an impressive line up has been secured by their event partner, AmaHot Entertainment.
Heavy hitting South African performers such as Kabza De Small, Uncle Vinny, and Musa Key are set to perform alongside vibrant local talent including the likes of Ancestral Rituals Bazon, Chrispin The Drummer and many more.
However, following the recent disappointment fans suffered after Uncle Waffles' non-appearance at shows the 22-year-old artist was scheduled to perform at, there is natural scepticism over South African artists booked for local events.
The organisers of the BAC Semester Shutdown, however, have eased the tension and confusion over whether the artists booked for the BAC Semester Shutdown will be present. Amahot Entertainment Director Abednico Malepa, and the president of the BAC SRC, Theo Monakeng, have confirmed that every artist in the line up has been contractually obligated to perform or face legal action to which point they may face arrest should they fail to fully repay the event organisers.
“There is a contract that we have got with the artists. We have been communicating with them for an entire week making travel arrangements, their performing times, where they’ll be sleeping and their entire performing package,” Monakeng confirmed.
“We at BAC all know what has been happening, and we have brought everyone on board to ensure that there will be no disappointments,” he added.
Amahot director, Malepa further added that should there be any circumstance beyond their control that will prevent any artist from performing they are obligated to notify the public over social media well in advance.
“If you enter on the page of these artists, you’ll see their solo flyers that they will be coming. If they can’t come then they must announce that they will be unable to make it from their social media pages. So that’s security for you,” Malepa said.
Offering a greater sense of peace of mind, Managing Director of All Night Security Kagiso Gaodumelwe announced that his security firm has taken note to place security points from the relative proximity of the BAC campus venue to the crime-ridden neighbourhood, Zola, and as such additional security measures have been put in place to protect eventgoers.
“We anticipate this event could have over 5,000 people judging by Kabza’s previous performances, and we have seen that the event will be close to Zola, so we have made sure we will have two to three checkpoints, security dogs, and patrol horses,” Gaodumelwe said.
“We’ll be working with the campus security alongside the Botswana Police Service, SSG [Special Support Group], and DIS [Directorate of Intelligence and Security],” he added.
In total, Gaodumelwe expects to be working with a combined security force of roughly 120 armed troupes ready to combat and deter criminal activity for the entirety of the event.
