20 Jun 2017

About 28 stand-up comedians descended on the mining town of Jwaneng over the weekend to compete for the regional President’s Day Art competitions.

Even though more than 40 participants had registered for the competition, only 28 turned up to showcase their talent.

After a day of creativity and continuous laughter, the Gabane-based Olefile Mokgware popularly known as Mawee emerged the winner with 73 points, just two  points above  Abel Maruza aka Nkapole who got 71 points to land in second position.

In an interview, Mokgware appreciated the tough competition which resulted in him winning with a narrow margin.

As someone who has been to the finals for several years since the competitions started, he said this year, he came well prepared as he had noticed growth of comedy in the country which resulted in high competition.

He said even though he could not reach the final stage last year, he intended to work hard to ready himself for an even much tougher contest with the country’s best comedians at the finals.On the other hand, Maruza found a niche in using English in comedy not only to be different but also to position himself for international standards.

He attributed his performance to the weekly acts that he used to deliver at the President’s hotel as a way of sharpening his skills.

He said even though it will be his first time to compete at the finals, he was optimistic that his Biblical jokes will set him apart from others.

The chief judge, Goodwill Tlhokwe acknowledged that comedy was growing and that there was a lot of artistic talent in Botswana.

He said adjudicating over the regional competitions was an easy task since there was a huge gap between those who had prepared well and those who displayed lukewarm performances.

“It was easy to judge because there are people who picked their scripts knowing they are going to compete and these are the people who were prepared to deliver their acts on international standards,” he noted.

He advised comedians to always strive for originality and also watch as much comedy as possible to see how international artists package their scripts.

Senior programmes officer at the Ministry of Youth Empowerment, Sport and Culture Development, Refilwe Banda applauded participants who turned up for the competition.  Banda said even though comedy was growing, more still needed to be done in terms of supporting the art and getting more people participating.

She also urged artists to honour appearances not only to register and not turn up.

“This is an opportunity for them to network as well as showcase their talent to potential sponsors,” she said.

She also called on women to come forth and make use of such opportunities. BOPA