11 Mar 2014

Business entities which find their niche in wedding ceremonies in Ngamiland were left in the lurch this season when authorities in the area decided to freeze both common and customary law marriages for six months to pave way for ploughing.

Most of these businesses sustained themselves by renting out tents, music systems and taking photographs at wedding ceremonies but now because of the freeze they found it hard to survive, thus virtually running at a loss.

The freez,e which was enforced in September 2013, had a toll on businesses that went along with wedding ceremonies that they converged at the Maun main kgotla recently to raise their concerns.

But the authority had it in good faith that agriculture was the mainstay of the rural community hence the importance of freezing wedding ceremonies for people to engage in agricultural related activities.

Young entrepreneur, Mr Moses Botshelo (34), who owns a photographic and filming business, was close to tears when he narrated how the wedding stoppage impacted negatively on his business. Mr Botshelo is the director of Rulers Investment Company which he started in 2008.

After working for several companies, Mr Botshelo established a company which specialises in filming and photographic activities especially wedding ceremonies.

He said his business had been doing exceptionally well, making a kill during the period of September up to December when there were many weddings.

“We relied much on weddings to make more profits but since the enforcement of the decision, we are running the business at a loss”, he added.

Mr Botshelo said the decision impacted negatively on many businesses which targeted weddings, noting that the six months freeze had resulted in some businesses struggling to raise capital to sustain them.

He said at the moment he was struggling to provide for his family and to pay for his rented office at Boseja ward because valuable customers relocated to other places.

“Most of us in the industry are frustrated more so that we idled for long without jobs. Some of my colleagues have requested loans from local banks to start their own businesses and now they are unable to service them,” he added.

Although he appreciated the whole idea of Letsema and its cultural connotation, Mr Botshelo said it would have been proper for the authority to consider other business entities because Letsema is a seasonal activity which depended much on rain and with the unpredictable weather conditions in the country not all can depend on it alone.

Despite the odds, Mr Botshelo was optimistic that his business would survive the hardships, noting that patience, commitment and discipline would keep him going.

Mr Botshelo is not new to hardship, he is a survivor and true fighter who was driven by passion and love for photojournalism that he ventured into photography without any formal background of the industry after completing his junior certificate in the 1990s. He remembers being keen to take a photo of the President of Botswana once in his life.

It was in 1998 that a Good Samaritan, a certain Marion Robert recognized his talent and introduced him to the real world of photography in Gantsi. From there he moved from company to company doing photography until he landed in South Africa to do a course in some techniques of modern photography.

The rest as they say is history and now he has his own photographic company, Rulers Investment Company which he intends to grow to become one of the best in the country. He has seen it all and as he says, he is not a person who succumbs to hardships easily.  Ends