15 Dec 2020

Member of Parliament(MP) for Kanye North constituency, Thapelo Letsholo has on Saturday commended the brains behind the inaugural BW photographers’awards: Treveron Media(TM) for their vision to inspire lens men and women.

Speaking during the award ceremony he said the initiative could push many photographers to work harder at their craft and in the process, derive more economic benefits from the same.

This he said could create numerous employment opportunities especially for young creatives.

He said the initiative was in line with both President Dr Mokgweetsi Masisi’s aspirations and government’s vision for the creative sector. He said Dr

Masisi was desirous of exploiting avenues offered by the sector and have creatives earn a living through God given talent.

Letsholo said such nations as Nigeria have long invested in the sector and now reaping the benefits.

He said the Nigerian sector produced about 50 movies each week and employed 130 people per movie, which further translated into 112 000 jobs a year.

To grow the event, he encouraged organisers to liaise with him and MP for Kanye South Dr Lemogang Kwape to help find sponsors for the next edition. He also advised organisers to hub the event in Kanye rather than moving it somewhere else, adding the village was renowned for historic events.

Through the generosity of technology, Dr Kwape who could not attend the event due to other pressing official engagements, said he was excited to host the first ever edition in Kanye.

Likewise, he said government had taken a deliberate decision to leverage on the creative sector with a view to creating job opportunities for the creatives.

Southern district council chairperson, Thamiso Chabalala urged organisers to start planning for the second edition of the event early enough to make it bigger and better adding that Kanye was a village of firsts.

He also applauded photographers for creating a niche for themselves in the market.

TM director Tshephang Mmoko, also a photographer, said the idea was birthed from the fact that they did a great job transporting people to different places around the world through the lenses but were not being appreciated enough for their work.

“We see the world through the eyes of a photographer, I’ve never been to Makgadikgadi pans but I know the place thanks to a photographer,” she said.

She said her vision was to demonstrate that photography just like other forms of art could create employment opportunities for many Batswana.

Mmoko said she had no sponsors and organised the event from her pocket and thanked Lodubeng village park for hosting them for free.

The event was preceded by the online submission of over 600 photographs from across the country to be judged by a panel of judges and members of the public.

Tirelo Moatshe came out tops with 6 206 votes and bagged the P10 000 prize money for the photographer of the year while the runner up Joe Mesika won himself a canon camera.

Moatshe had also won the street photographer and landscape awards respectively while Mesika walked away with the wildlife award and Tsaone Bahiti scooped the fine art award. ENDS