28 Jun 2015

President Lt Gen. Seretse Khama Ian Khama has commended the Botswana Society for having been a leader in promoting Botswana’s cultural heritage since it was founded in 1969.

Officiating at an occasion that marked the opening of the Botswana Society’s roundavel at the Botswana National Museum and Art Gallery premises in Gaborone recently, President Khama said the society had also for many years dedicated itself to raising awareness of Botswana’s culture through its landscape in all its many passages.

“We must also thank them for the new emphasis on cultural heritage tourism with the engagement of our nation’s youth,” he added.

President Khama, who is the Botswana Society’s patron, said Botswana Society was also modernising its mission in tune with the Vision 2016, while remaining true to its long standing vision of making Botswana better known to itself and the world.

All this, he said, was made possible by the contributions of the society’s leading figures, such as the former president and former patron of the Botswana Society, Sir Ketumile Masire and the late founder of both the Botswana Society and National Museum and Art Gallery, Mr Alec Campbell and the late former director of the National Museum and Art Gallery, Ms Doreen Nteta.

Now that it has been officially opened, President Khama said The Botswana Society’s Roundavel was ready to render services to the public, the Botswana Society and its long term supporter- the national museum.

The Roundavel, he said would serve as a venue where the Society’s many publications on Botswana would be made available to members of the public and to visitors from outside the country.

Additionally, President Khama said the Roundavel would also serve as a starting and end point of the Society’s new cultural heritage tour of Botswana, “which I believe has already received many accolades from citizens, residents, diplomats and tourists alike.”

For his part, on the historical and insights of the Society, Sir Ketumile said as the Society’s former Patron and its first President in 1969,  he was familiar with the Society’s  “long and productive history.”

Of particular importance, especially in those early years, he said, was the Botswana Society’s role in convening forums, conferences and workshops that dealt with issues of national importance. Ends