04 Jun 2019

Ministry of Youth Empowerment, Sport and Culture Development’s district coordinator for Kgatleng region, Kagiso Mapotu has   urged artists participating in the President’s Day Competitions to show professionalism and commitment.

Speaking in an interview during the regional competitions in Mochudi on recently, Mapotu said  government was doing everything possible to support artists.

Thus, he encouraged artists to show commitment and professionalism to the competitions.

“Artists need to come on time for their performances, show professionalism in their craft and show that they are hungry to make use of these opportunities,” he said.

The regional competition, he said involved five districts being, Kgatleng, Kweneng, Gaborone, Southern and South East.

 He added that Kgatleng District would host the competition this year.

“But today, we are hosting traditional instruments and these are setinkane, segaba and katara,” he said.

Mapotu further said he was happy with the number of participants during this year’s competition and the diversity offered by artists.

“The numbers and quality of performers is satisfying and I can only urge the youth; both men and women to take part and share with the world their God-given talents,” he said.

He said it was up to the younger generation to learn from the older generation when it comes to traditional instruments like segaba, setinkane and ensure that the tradition does not end with a certain generation.

One of the objectives of the competitions, he said included giving artists a platform to showcase and nurture their talent, to encourage and show that one’s creative talent can be a source of livelihood and to help the country diversify its economy through the use of the creative arts.

He highlighted that ever since the President’s Day Competitions started in 2008, there had been a shift in how most artists were handling their business.

“You can see a change in presentation when an artist is about to take the stage and the way the performances are structured and also the message,” he added.

He further said one of the challenges they were faced with was shortage of staff.

“There is so much we need to do but we are severely short-staffed.

The little number of officers we have are overly stretched and overwhelmed,” he said, adding that it becomes hard to give officers some time to rest.

He said there were other follow-up initiatives that had to be implemented after the competitions to help artists.

But without a significant budget, he said that never happens.

“After competitions are done we need follow-up workshops, interactions, meetings among other things, with artists to ensure our efforts do not just end with the competitions, but we cannot, because we do not have enough funds,” said Mapotu.

Meawhile, in the guitar (katara) category, Batlaadira Radipitse and Thomo Kekgwe (both from Kweneng) got first and second positions respectively.

Mokgweetsi Kabomo and Thabang Molefe both from Gaborone were crowned number one and two respectively in the setinkane category, while Onkokame Phofedi (Kweneng) and Ketshephile Mmoniemang (Southern) completed the team which is going to compete in the finals as they scooped first and second positions respectively  in the segaba category.

ENDS