01 Jun 2015

Francistown artists have been urged to take advantage of the Botswana Confederation of Commerce Industry and Manpower (BOCCIM) Northern Fair to interact and network with investors and representatives of different companies.



Speaking at the first ever Francistown Arts Festival dubbed Toropo ya Muka, Assistant Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, Botlogile Tshireletso said the festival should be used as an opportunity to sell the city.

 She called upon the Francistown artists to establish a solid market for themselves and build their profiles so that they would not get left out in high profile events hosted in their area.

“This can be achieved by working together in a bid to improve your brands and this festival should be taken as a starting point,” she said.

She said with a solid market for the artists, there would be no reason for the residents to travel outside Francistown to seek entertainment. Ms Tshireletso, who is also the Mahalapye East MP, encouraged the artists to take advantage of the upcoming Botswana Games to make visitors look forward to returning to the city.

She commended the organiser of the event, Bonno Ngaka, also known as DJ Colastraw for showing people that an alcohol-free entertainment is possible. For his part, DJ Colastraw said one of the festival objectives include bringing Francistown artists together and closer to the corporate world and giving life to the city.

He said through the festival, the artists would learn from each other and in the process enhance their growth. Monarch Customary Court president, Kgosi Gunny Moses raised a concern about alcohol and drug abuse, road accidents and passion killings prevalent amongst the youth.

Ministry of Youth, Sports and Culture (MYSC) District coordinator, Minkie Bokole said her ministry has identified some open spaces in the city for outdoor gyms to enhance healthy lifestyles.
She said her ministry would lobby BOCCIM to include the arts festival as one of the northern trade fair’s activities.

Ms Bokole implored the youth who benefited from the Youth Development Fund (YDF) to service their loans in order to give more youth a chance to be funded. The festival also aimed at raising funds towards the renovation of the Monarch Customary Court shelter, which was gutted by fire recently.

Twenty five per cent of the profits from the festival will be channeled towards the renovation while 10 per cent will be donated to the music workshop. The music workshop will be aimed at facilitating and empowering Francistown artists on skills of self-conduct in the music business and how to improve the quality of their music.

The theme of the festival, which also encouraged physical fitness and good health amongst the public, was “Music, Business and Fitness.” Ends