RAMOJAKA music festival to combat cross-border crimes

RAMOJAKGA is an acronym for the villages of Ramokgwebana, Moroka, Jackackals No. 1, and Kgari (RAMOJAKA).The music festival, which is scheduled to take place at the Chitawa Lodge on September 21, is a community project through a partnership with Bana Bana Ba Ntogwa cultural group and affected villages. Chitawa Lodge is situated in the middle of the mentioned villages along the A1 road, just a stone throw from the Ramokgwebana border. When addressing a press conference, Daniel said the primary goal is to raise money for the purpose of combating crime in the mentioned villages, which are located close to the border between Botswana and Zimbabwe. He said the festival is a way of giving back to the community that they serve by raising funds to combat crime through music.

Daniel stated they have partnered with the impacted communities in order to raise funds for a vehicle, protective gear, touches, horses and other equipments that the local policing clusters can use for border patrols. He said while the things on the list are short-term objectives, one of their long-term plans is to buy and install a camera on top of Tegwi hill in Ramokgwebana that can monitor an area up to 50 kilometers around the hill. These cameras will assist monitoring cross border crime activities so that stolen goods can be in recovered and also assist in capturing the criminals' movements, he added. “Over the past year, people from these villages have been losing their belongings. The culprits would break-in and cross the border with the stolen goods to Zimbabwe,” he explained. He further said this initiative will not only benefit the villages located near the border but all in Botswana. Daniel indicated that the cultural festival will include a cultural family fun day and a festival at night.

According to the RAMOJAKGA coordinator, the family fun day will have family activities including jumping castles, face painting and games for the children. He stated that during the day there will only be performances of traditional song and dance as a way of celebrating their history and culture. He elaborated that at night there will be a festival, which will feature local artists such as Ndingo Johwa, Vee Mampeezy, Dr Vom, Cultures Spears, Monnamogolo wa Thulaganyo, Tjilenje Che Ngwao, Bana Bana Ba Ntogwa, Mdala vs Kelly Jess, Sotsha Moyo and Acuz Penda from Zimbabwe, to mention but a few. Additionally, he stated that they expect 3, 000 attendees, locally and from Zimbabwe. According to Daniel, more Zimbabweans are driving up ticket sales, which are currently selling like hotcakes. Daniel added that they have partnered with the Botswana Police Service and hired a local security company to supply bouncers as part of their safety measures.