30 Jul 2013

 Government appreciates any effort towards the revival and conservation of culture, deputy permanent secretary in the Ministry of Youth, Sports and Culture, Kago Ramokate has said.

Speaking at the Tati River Lodge's Zhizha (a Kalanga translation of Letlhafula) over the weekend, Mr Ramokate said this month was a time in which government through the President’s Day celebrations revived culture through music and dance.

Ramokate said the private sector’s contribution in the preservation and revival of culture was a commendable one and needed to be supported. In an interview, Tati River' sales and marketing manager, Andy Boatile said the day was aimed at embracing culture through music, dance food and traditional attire.

He said it also provided Francistown artists opportunity to entertain the guests and also market the music. Boagile said the day provided opportunity to promote traditional cuisine which was usually ignored in favour of the foreign cuisines although it provided much better health benefits.

He explained that local artists were also provided a platform to showcase and market their clay pots and other artifacts during the Letlhafula day. He noted that farmers in the peripheries of Francistown also benefitted from the day because their produce was purchased as part of the ingredients for the day’s menu.

Mr Boagile said the event which was the second following the 2008 one was not aimed at profit making as the proceeds will be donated to charitable organisations that will be identified through the help of the city council’s Social and Community Development office.

He said the reception from the city stakeholders was satisfactory as all the tickets were sold adding that some corporate companies purchased tickets for a table of ten people as a way of supporting TRL gesture in reaching out to the less privileged.

Patrons enjoyed traditional cuisine such as phane, seswaa, koko ya Setswana, serobe, mokoto, tjimoni and they snacked on groundnuts and kabu and they also had the opportunity to play games such as morabaraba, koi, amongst others.

Apart from the local artists, the Botswana Defence Force (BDF) band also entertained the patrons and the best dressed patron won a prize. ENDS