28 Feb 2021

The Botswana Entertainment Promoters Association (BEPA) has started a recruitment drive, in an effort to grow the entertainment promotion industry.

In an interview in Gaborone on February 24, BEPA Secretary General, Sidney Nzala, known as ‘Boogie Sid’ in the entertainment industry, said their role was to advance the interests of promoters and to safeguard their credibility.

Boogie Sid explained that they aimed to develop an industry with trustworthy, professional members and be recognised by government and other stakeholders.

He highlighted that for them to achieve their role to professionalise the industry and eventually grow it, all promoters had to be brought under one umbrella, as it would be easier to regulate and operate to the set standards.

In the near future, Nzala said the association intended to turn the industry into a profession, where one could not operate without a licence, hence the need to invite all entertainment promoters to join the association to be part of this transformation.

He indicated that they encountered a lot of challenges in their line of business, which could only be addressed by working as a collective, citing an example of people not trusting promoters.

“Most people do not trust promoters, for example if a certain promoter is bringing a foreign artist, people go to the extent of contacting that particular artist, to confirm if indeed he/she will be part of the event,” he added.

One of the challenges, he said was the issue of ‘fly by night promoters’ organizing events, then disappearing, which he said tarnished the industry’s image.

Nzala said they learn from countries with a professional entertainment industry such as South Africa, adding that they were however yet to make contact for formal benchmarking.

He indicated that they were in talks with government concerning office space and funding, saying they needed people who would be willing to work full time, to transform the industry into a fully-fledged one, that could provide employment to people and contribute to economy. ENDS