30 Jul 2014

Serowe Sub-district chairperson, Mr Bafana Motseothata, has appealed to stakeholders, business people, schools and the community at large to work together in making the Serowe district trade fair a success.

Speaking at the event over on July 26, Mr Motseothata decried the poorly attended event. Mr Motseothata said the fair used to be bigger and better, bringing farmers and communities closer but its standard was slowly going down the drain because of poor organising.

He said village leaders, especially councillors, and ward heads should also join in to bring back the status of the fair, otherwise it might not take place in future.

He advised the committee fair to stand up, benchmark and liaise with the previous committee, accept criticism and encouragement so as to bring back the status at which the Serowe district was known of.

He said there was nothing they needed to be ashamed of, citing the Ghanzi trade fair which was usually big and better and well attended.

Mr Motseothata said trade fairs were good because they were forums for business people and farmers to meet and share ideas of how they could improve their products.

On other issues, Mr Motseothata said government was concerned about the future of the youth, hence making initiatives that are meant to empower them. 

He said the youth needed to work together, unite and seek these initiatives so that they could improve their lives and develop their communities.

The theme of the fair was: “Empowering the youths through community projects and events.”He explained that the involvement of the youth should be visible and by connecting with elders they could learn something and have good foundations

He advised them to take whatever they wanted to do seriously and work together and actively do what was needed rather than only wanting to stand alone and fail. 

Usually, the youth decried shortage of land but if they could form groups they could succeed and reap the rewards of government initiatives.

Sharing the same sentiments as Mr Motseothata was Kgosi Serogola Seretse who was also disappointed at the low turnout and organizing of the event. 

Kgosi Seretse said this fair could have been a success with different stakeholders and the community was involved.

He said the Serowe District Trade Fair committee was made up all the Bangwato in Serowe and surrounding villages and if they could come together the event would be a success.

He explained that if each village could have an organizing committee prior to the event and a bigger one in Serowe, nothing could go wrong.Kgosi Seretse appealed to the existing committee to involve communities and liaise with previous committees and also bench mark with other villages and trade fairs around Botswana. 

He pledged to help the committee with ideads. ENDS