This comes after event director, Nkgopolang Tlhomelang and his wife sat down and brainstormed on what they could do to appreciate local celebrities. Speaking at the recent launch of nominees of the second Annual Glitz of BW Celebs 2023, Tlhomelang said they realised that most of the local awards focused on a certain group of celebrities at the exclusion of others. To bridge that gap, he said they decided to make awards that could celebrate and bring all celebrities under one roof. “We wanted to do away with this thing that Botswana does not have celebrities. This is out of context. When our celebrities go out of the country, they get immense recognition and even walk down red carpets. This misconception that there are no celebrities in Botswana must come to an end. We did a research with my wife and realised that fashion was left out. Our aim is to promote creativity. We have a lot of talented creatives,” he said.
However, he advised local celebrities to positively use their celebrity status to change people’s lives. He said social responsibility was important for them adding that in order to upgrade their profiles, a lot of international celebrities use their status to make an impact in people’s lives including the youth. He added that making an impact does require someone to have money as they could use their talents to change lives. He further called on different business entities and organisations to engage celebrities as their ambassadors. He explained that a lot of local celebrities know marketing and branding. He added that since celebrities have numerous followers, businesses could take advantage of that. He said celebrities could raise companies’ brands higher. For his part, the area councillor, Arthur Tabane applauded the awards organisers for their good gesture of recognising local talent. He also commended them for increasing the awards categories from 35 last year to 41 this year. He added that it was important for the government to support that initiative. Tabane also called on the organisers to also teach local celebrities financial literacy so that they can be able to fend for themselves.
