11 Nov 2019

The Television (TV)/Film festival is one catalyst that will usher Botswana into the orbit of a true knowledge based economy, says permanent secretary in the Ministry of Youth Empowerment, Sport and Culture Development, Kago Ramokate.

Ramokate indicated this at the second annual Botswana National Youth Council (BNYC) TV/Film festival in Gaborone.

He said the festival was in line with government’s priority areas of 2014-2019, which placed job creation as a top priority, thereby uniting with the second pillar of Vision 2036; Education and Skills Development; Investing in Youth and Creating Economic Opportunities.

He said the TV/Film festival was meant to facilitate the participation of young people pertaining to the role of the local TV/film industry in developing Botswana’s economy and creating sustainable jobs.

He also noted that the festival served as a vehicle to capacitate Batswana youth and youth organisations to enable them take advantage of international business trends and opportunities in the film industry.

The festival is one the country’s Youth Economic Empowerment Programmes, whose purpose is to create platforms that would enable the creation of employment opportunities for the youth.

Ramokate further noted that the programme was there to strengthen entrepreneurial and creative arts skills among the youth by exploring innovation as well as utilising available initiatives.

He indicated that government had shown commitment and support to the creatives and still continued to, as evident in the recently BNYC sponsored film, Gobe the Gift, to an award ceremony in the US that saw the film emerging winners in the short films category.

Another initiative that seeks to ensure development of the youth is the establishment of the youth TV channel, NOW! TV, which is on DSTV Channel 290; whose content acquisition is acquired mainly from youth.

In addition, Ramokate noted that in their continued efforts to support the creative in this country, the ministry had started the process of reviewing the Cinematography Act, which was old and redundant.

He said consultations were done across the country to enable practitioners to add their input.

For his part, BNYC board vice chairperson, Tshenolo Palai said the TV/Film festival was a celebration of the local creative.

He said as an organisation they were committed to the creative industry as they believe sustainable jobs could be created from this industry.

The 2019 BNYC TV/Film festival was celebrated under the theme, Mobilising Partnerships for the Development of the Local TV/film Industry.” ENDS