21 Dec 2015

Thapelo Maleka, otherwise known as MC Maswe, was toast of the night at the first Northern Arts Awards in Francistown on Saturday (December 19) evening.

He won the lifetime achiever as well as the overall best artist. Chairperson of the awards, Lionel Nkosi, said the objective of the awards was to fill the gap between Gaborone and Francistown.
He said they also held the awards to appreciate the creative work in the industry of arts.

Nkosi said appreciating and recognising the arts would contribute to the country’s economy and some artists would be able to sell the country internationally. Giving a keynote address, Francistown mayor, Grace Muzila, applauded organisers of the awards for coming up with this concept.

She said, even though there was high unemployment in Francistown, the organisers were on the right direction to bridge the gap of unemployment.

She said the awards would help the country in terms of job creation as they would be held annually. She said this year was good for Francistown because big events were lined up for the northern city.

Furthermore, the mayor said she was proud of young people’s initiatives and creative minds as this would take Francistown to greater heights. Francistown West MP,   Ignatius Moswaane, said government took arts seriously.
He said the youth should strive to make quality work and urged artists to be careful of piracy and plagiarism as they could ruin their careers.

Other awards recipients were best arts reporter, Kabelo Dipholo of The Voice newspaper, while best choir was Tsela Tshweu and best comedian was won by Top Shut.
The best DJ award went to DJ Bunz while Chase Mabutho won the best music producer while best music group was scooped by Tjilenje Tje Ngwao.

MC Poster won the best promoter award while the best theatre group was Ghetto Artists with best upcoming artist going to B-Block. The best poet was Ngwao Putswa while best visual artist went to Bold Win. Ends