23 Mar 2014

Botswana Entertainment Promoters Association (BEPA) has for a long time been struggling to build a strong membership base; thus failing to fully carry out its mandate.

With close to a 100 entertainment promoters in the country, BEPA had since its inception in 2006 had less than 20 members. This, interim chairperson of the association, Soares Katumbela said in an interview that it had caused stagnancy to the association.

The association was formed and mandated to regulate the entertainment industry by adhering to the association’s code of conduct as well as to promote and protect the welfare and interests of the association’s members.

The association was also mandated to educate promoters on a regular basis through workshops and seminars and to also be a channel of information for the entertainment industry locally and internationally. Katumbela said the objectives had been barely realised as promoters were not coming forth to actively participate nor register for membership.

This, he said, was despite the various challenges that the local promoters were facing such as clarity of their role, as well as their cooperation with other stakeholders such as Botswana Unified Revenue Services, artists and the police.

He said a lot of promoters held shows around the country and mostly found themselves having to deal with various issues that needed the association to handle, but their hands were tight since some were not registered members of BEPA.

Despite all these challenges, Katumbela had however expressed delight as a new development had occurred lately. Katumbela revealed that the past week had the copyright society of Botswana (COSBOTS) calling all promoters for a meeting after which all those who attended the meeting, found the need to register with BEPA.

“I am happy to inform you that BEPA has now over 50 members who registered immediately after the COSBOTS meeting, he said. Katumbela said BEPA was now looking forward to working cooperatively with the promoters to even enhance their businesses.

He said the first step from here, would be to hold an annual general meeting where they will elect a new committee which will ensure that the association’s business gets back to normal and even move faster than before.

Other interim committee members are Shima Monageng who is the vice chairperson, Israel Seitshiro is the treasurer while Lucia Molebatsi is the secretary.

He explained that though on a tight budget, the interim committee managed to come up with the association’s constitution and successfully registered it with the register of companies through the department of arts and culture’s assistance.

The association, he said also managed to open an office at Africa Mall, which was later closed, due to lack of funding to fully operationalize it.

He said the signing in of more members will inject new lease into the association and are looking forward to opening a new office through funding by the department of arts and culture. ENDS