20 Nov 2022

Government is committed to building an ecosystem that will guarantee thriving of the arts industry.   

This, according to President Dr Mokgweetsi Masisi, will entail putting up necessary technology as well as enforcing appropriate legal instruments to protect the industry.

Dr Masisi, who was speaking at the Department of Broadcasting Services (DBS) roadshow in Palapye on Friday, cited the recent launch of the policy on Intellectual Property (IP) as evidence of government’s resolve to protect the interests of the arts industry and ensure that it flourishes.

“We have got the law that protects the patents, copyright and neighbourhood rights; we also have a policy on Intellectual Property. This is the ecosystem necessary for you to have a knowledge economy; it is the ecosystem necessary to protect artists and creatives,” he said.

 He said government’s stance on IP was informed by, among other things, the fact that the arts formed a vital part of the knowledge economy, hence the move to enact a policy to safeguard the arts industry’s interests, thereby allowing it room to contribute, without impediment to the efforts to attain the noble ideal of a knowledge-based economy.

     Noting how the attainment of a knowledge-based economy was a process and not an event, he implored all to be resolute in pushing ahead with their individual and collective efforts towards the endeavour to turn around the atmosphere of arts scene.

Such unyielding determination, Dr Masisi said, would serve not only to silence the naysayers but would also give hope to the creatives themselves to soldier on.

    “This country has a lot of creativity; I know it myself. I have seen it. I interact with it almost on a daily basis,” he said, indicating how the depth of talent in the arts industry was on its own reason enough for the industry to be afforded all the support that it needed for it to be a significant contributor to the realisation of a knowledge-based economy.

     President Masisi, who professed his deep-seated love for music, called for mindset change on the part of those in the arts industry, saying today’s era was unfavourable to inward-looking artists.

  “What I want to challenge you to do is that you must create productions in the languages of the rest of Africa,” he said.

 He said productions in the languages of other nations would open endless possibilities for artists, placing at their fingertips fresher and bigger markets.

     For his part, Thato Sikwane aka DJ Fresh, who DBS engaged to spearhead the nation-wide roadshow, spoke highly of the immense art talent that Botswana was endowed with. He said if polished and given adequate support, Botswana’s raw talent would without doubt put the country’s arts industry on a pedestal.

  DJ Fresh noted, however, that the lack of facilities to support the work of creatives in Botswana continued to be a barrier to the possibilities that the industry was imbued with.

   “There is a general lack of facilities necessary for the work of creatives. My proposal is not for government to build recording studios for individual artists, but such facilities can be built and availed for use by artists at a nominal fee,” he stated.

   He asked creatives to be resilient and not back down any time their dream for greatness got threatened.

   “I always tell creatives that you have to be intentional about everything that you do. Nothing great was built by mistake; everything is about how intentional you are,” he said. ENDS