20 Dec 2020

Funds have been made available under the Economic Recovery and Transformation Plan (ERTP) to refurbish and upgrade the auditorium at the Mass media complex.

The Vice President Mr Slumber Tsogwane told Parliament during Leader of House’s question time on Thursday that work would commence in the 2021/22 financial year. He said the refurbishment was expected to enable the auditorium to host larger productions of international standards as well as production of content of a wide genre for both radio and television programming.

He said the Presidential Initiatives were also being subjected to the same austere budgetary constraints that affected other development projects including adherence to and compliance with procurement procedures.

“Once completed, the project is expected to support growth of the creative industry as radio and television productions have job creation and skills transfer capacities that reverberate across any creative industry landscape to include fields such as advertising. These are some of the intangible benefits that may not be quantified statistically but are reasonably assumed in the promotion of the creative industry,” he said.

Regarding the number of social media content creators in Botswana working with television mogul Mr Steve Harvey, he said the initiative was a personal offer by Mr Harvey to social media content creators that they could contact him on a person-to-person basis.

He said the outcome of the offer should hence lie with the social media content creators who seized the opportunity or Mr Harvey himself if he chose to share the results of the personal offer.

Mr Tsogwane said a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) that formed the basis for a partnership between the Government of Botswana and Steve Harvey Global was signed on December 4, 2019. He said this was meant to facilitate cooperation in various areas to unlock opportunities for the creation of jobs and wealth creation in Botswana primarily in the creative, tourism and other related sectors of the economy.

He said the MoU created a framework within which the parties intended to implement their agreements.

“This MOU will cover a period of five years from the date of signing. Negotiations leading to contractual commitments to carry out such programmes will be entered into as soon as the due procurement processes have been completed, including the certainty of available funds to implement the MoU outcomes.

Meanwhile, funds have been secured for a feasibility study that has been commissioned to inform, among other considerations, a strategy to broaden the inclusion of local citizen producers,” he added.

He said the Steve Harvey Global initiative was a part of a deliberate and broader government objective to promote the creative industry in Botswana.

Mr Tsogwane said the study intended to establish and document the economic value of the sector in terms of its potential contribution to the Gross Development Product (GDP).

He said it would establish the profile of the creative industry in Botswana and determine its strong points, its weaknesses and possible impediments and ultimately it’s potential for growth.

“Programming, job creation, and global comparisons needed to establish a launching pad for the bigger package will also be determined. The study is expected to be concluded by the end of this financial year,” he explained.

He said the partnership with Steve Harvey Global was expected to directly yield in excess of 50 jobs per production.

He said at least three productions would be derived from the partnership creating about 150 jobs.

Mr Tsogwane said the benefits would include knowledge transfer to Batswana of all ages interested in jobs in the media/entertainment sector in particular the youth.

He said two interns were attached to the production of Steve Harvey’s show, Family Feud.

He said one of them had started production of a weekly programme that would be produced for Btv and other platforms and it was expected to directly employ fifty 50 people.

The Vice President said production was delayed by COVID-19 Pandemic.

He said the second intern who was a radio presenter at Gabz FM engaged in the creative industry by doing media related events such as public events, public speaking and advertising.

Mr Tsogwane said the partnership with Mr Strive Masiyiwa to train and empower youth was divided into two streams namely coding, and optic fibre technician training.

He said the training was held from July to August 2019 and it had enrolled a total of 101 youth.

He said the students were trained in four batches at the Botswana Innovation Hub.  

Maun West MP Mr Dumelang Saleshando had asked the Vice President to give an update relating to the refurbishments to the Mass Media Complex studios to turn it into a hub of entertainment excellence.

Mr Saleshando also asked about the number of social media content creators in Botswana working with Steve Harvey following his visit to Botswana and progress made in moving the production of Steve Harvey Shows to Botswana and the number of jobs that were expected to be generated.

He further wanted to know progress on the provision of facilities for youth innovators with training provided by Strive Masiyiwa. ENDS