22 Jul 2018

Although the entertainment industry in Francistown has seen considerable growth, promoter and event organiser, Bonolo Ngaka aka DJ Colastraw feels more can be achieved should the private sector come to the fore.

In an interview, DJ Colastraw, who is the brains behind the popular Toropo ya Muka music event, said even though progress had been made in improving the entertainment industry, they were still faced with challenges such as lack of funding.

He said organisers were at times forced to sponsor shows from their own pockets.

Thus, he said there was need for the private sector to come on board.

“Through our determination and discipline, we have earned it as people of Francistown. We need to be supported because we got things right now and I believe its high time people invest in us,” he said.

Further, he said the number of people living in Francistown was another challenge, as sponsors want returns on their investments.

The other issue, he raised was that since most companies were headquartered in Gaborone, priorities were given to events in Gaborone. 

DJ Colastraw said despite the lack of sponsorship, the community of Francistown and surrounding areas had been supportive.

“It is very expensive to pull out an event since none of our shows get sponsored like in Gaborone but are funded from our pockets. An event costs nothing less than P250 000, which is always a hectic exercise,” he said.

DJ Colastraw also called for partnership between local (Francistown) entertainment and business people to come up with great initiatives. 

He urged the doubting Thomases to look at the number of music revellers who attend Toropo ya Muka as testimony of how supportive people were.

He further said great work had also been done with other events like Goledzwa, which had managed to stay relevant all this time with little help from sponsors.

He said entertainment events presented a business opportunity for locals, adding that coming up with quality events would also allow performing artistes’ exposure to perform in a better quality production setup.

For the moment, he noted that since they were funding their events, organisers depend on what they make from the events to pay artistes, which compromises the professional standards. 

He revealed that Toropo ya Muka features about 51 DJs, which he said reflects good intentions.

DJ Colastraw appealed to the business community to come forward and form partnerships with them to explore and catapult the entertainment industry in Francistown to greater heights. ENDS