09 Oct 2016

Kgosi Sechele Museum I in Molepolole has embarked on projects intended to transform the nature of leisure in the district.

Museum curator, Power Kawina said during an interview that in addition to construction of a new museum, they were also planning to have other developments that would bring leisure services to people of Kweneng District.

He said they were raising funds for construction of a wedding park, camp site, restaurant garden, studio, ablution block, gate house, exhibition hall and exploration trails among other things.

The museum earmarked about 100 hectares of land in a place called Ko Ntsweng, commonly known as Ko-ga-Mma-kgosi, or the royal graveyard, for the development of the new museum premises. Kawina pointed out that the development was already ongoing as some excavations had already been done to pave way for construction of the museum.

He explained that with the wedding park, they were hoping to provide people with an opportunity to come out on weekends, take photos and book to host events of any nature including weddings.

With the studio and exhibition hall, they were hoping to improve living standards of artists who will rent out space to work from.

“We want to have our artists stationed at the museum where other people can come and see them work.  This will provide people with a chance to learn from artists and preserve indigenous knowledge,” he said.

While artists would be working from one corner, their products would be displaced at the exhibition hall and there would also be an office to market the products from another corner.

Kawina said there were plans to build a camp site given the fact that Molepolole was gateway to Kalahari Game Reserve.

“We want to have a stopover for people going to Namibia and those going to the game reserve. These people should be able to stop, shop here, eat here and bring business,” he said.
He explained exploration trails as the creation of little routes that would be used to go out to see nature.  

“For example there can be a route that a tour guide would be able to use to take out people on a horse back, bicycle or on foot to go see nature.

This will create jobs for such people,” he pointed out.

Kawina said that in addition to providing leisure, these were projects intended to generate income for the sustainability of the museum.

He said currently it was difficult to raise funds as the buying power has generally gone down. “Since the economic recession in 2009 the buying power is eroded to the point that we sometimes return products to their owners,” he said.

The museum currently raises funds for itself through offering secretarial services like an internet café, printing and photocopying.

A board member and a liaison officer at the museum, Keineetse Sebele I said they requested for funds after realisation that the current space was too small for the museum. “The house that is currently housing the museum was built for the first police officer in 1902 by the tribe under the leadership of Kgosi Sebele I,” he explained.

He said that they were happy with the developments as the quality of life for people in general would be changed. A resident in the area, Motlhophi Leo, welcomed the developments which he said they had been waiting for.

He said that project will change the value and appearance of the area, which is currently just a bush. Also, he is happy that there will be jobs for youth in the area. ENDS