04 Jul 2017

One of the judges for this year’s poetry competition in the President’s Day Celebrations Competitions says they are disappointed by the level of competitors in this year’s poetry competition compared to last year when competition was stiffer.

Giving adjudicators remarks after the competition, Professor Thapelo Otlogetswe said this year, the standard of competition had dropped significantly, which should be addressed as a matter of urgency.

Last year, he indicated that it was difficult to judge the competition as all poets in the contemporary and traditional categories brought their A-game and were not separated by huge margins, unlike this year.

“This year you could pick only two and then the rest were just terrible and the level of disparities and competition were way off from each other,” he said.

Professor Otlogetswe also said poets in the contemporary category should be made aware that just speaking English properly does not make one a poet.

“This year, it was very weak. We looked at various things such as idioms, alliterations, communication amongst others and those things were hardly present,” he said,.

He highlihgted that poets should also be cautioned that wearing national colours does not necessarily give one an advantage over others.

“Sometimes it becomes too much and does not even do anything for one’s performance,” said Professor Otlogetswe.

He noted that for the traditional category, judges looked at various things such as attire, accompaniment, the language being used, stage presence and performance.

“We also looked at originality, message, voice projection, time management and whether someone was a public speaker or actually a poet,” he said.

In the contemporary category, Kenaope Mhutsiwa from Francistown got position one followed by Anthony Molosi from Maun and Kelebileone Bula from Serowe on second and third positions respectively.

Debbei Reepenyane (Gaborone), Loago Seonewang (Hukuntsi), Kgosietsile Dlamini (Gaborone), Keoikantse Keogotsitse (Maun) and Previous Kaukahoka (Ghanzi) all made position four to position eight respectively.

Mompati Mokhokho (Werda), Lucky Nkhurutshi (Maun) and Omphile Lefutswe got first, second and third positions in the traditional category.

Keabetswe Moleta (Tonota), Okabo Gaopelo (Maun), Thomas Kepese (New Nxanagas), Tirelo Oganne (Francistown) and Kgosietsile Kgosietsile (Kanye) got position four, five, six, seven and eight respectively.

Position one walked away with P10 000, second position with P9 000, third position with P8 000, fourth position with P7 000, fifth position with P6 000, sixth position with P5 000, seventh position with P4 000 and eighth position scooped P3 000. ENDS