01 May 2024

 Member of Parliament for Mmathethe/Molapowabojang Dr Edwin Dikoloti says cultural tourism has the potential to grow local economies as it attracts more people to places of interest. 

Speaking during the Diarora Hot Singers choir annual symposium at Morwatubana cattlepost on April 27, Dr Dikoloti therefore applauded Diarora Hot Singers choir for their efforts to promote cultural tourism through dikhwaere.

Also, he said having dikwaere festival in the area was a great move as it was a platform for people to exhibit and sell their various products and show their talents.

Dr Dikoloti, who is also Minister of Health, urged singers to know their value and use their talents to make money out of it. 

“We all have different skills and we have to work hard and turn those into businesses and eventually grow the local economy,” he said.

He also advised Diarora choir to be organised and disciplined as that would ensure that they prosper in all their wishes and he also assured  them of his support. 

“A re ithulaganyeng, re be re tlhomamise gore re gweba ka dikitso tsa rona le tsa ngwao,” he said. 

For his part, member of Diarora Hot Singers, Bobeo Moseki said the idea behind the symposium was for them to share ideas on how they could better their lives in the area, without migrating to other areas. 

“We are actually here to introspect, see where we are and where we want to be in the near future,” he said. 

He said they wanted to come up with strategies on how they could grow their choir and use it as a source of income.

“We are heeding President Dr Mokgweetsi Masisi’s call for mindset change. We intend to think and do things differently to better our lives, keeping in mind that almost everything we do could be turned into business,” he added.  

Moseki said they wanted to have an annual dikhwaere festival, where different choirs would perform with spectators paying an pay entrance fee, adding that the business community would also have the opportunity to exhibit and sell their products and services. All these activities, he said, would grow the local economy and sell the area to the nation, adding that in the process they would be promoting cultural tourism.

Moseki said it was time to change their mindsets and understand that they could profit from almost everything around them. 

“What we positively do in our area could attract investors to the area, hence creating employment and growing the local economy,” he said. 

He said their lives were mostly based on farming and during drought, they found it difficult to make ends meet, adding that the idea was therefore to make use of other things they had such as cultural tourism to make an income.

 “Re a ikaga, e bile re aga tshaba e e ka eletsegang,” he said. 

Meanwhile, spectators were treated to music performance as Diarora Hot Singers and Mokgomane Youth Choir mostly known as Barata Pina took turns on stage to showcase their talents. Different traders had also set up stalls to sell their various products and people were also treated to different meats such as beef, goat and donkey for free. ENDS