Entertainment promoters convene advisory board
They propose a guided opening of the industry
The Botswana Entertainment Promoters Association ( BEPA) has appointed an Effective Advisory Board, which is made up of elders from the industry. The board comprises of Ollie Groth, Shima Monageng, Regie Kopi, Israel Seitshiro as well as Thami Selechami. The members are the founding fathers of BEPA, and the whole idea is for them to reign in the Executive committee as well as general members of BEPA. Their mandate will be to advise the executive committee and handle disciplinary issues.
Speaking in an interview, the President of BEPA, Gilbert Seagile explains that when the Executive has a misunderstanding, the elders will come
in to show them the way.
He explains that the Elders were appointed following an AGM held this year, where it was suggested that an advisory committee of elders must be appointed to deal with code of conduct. They will also handle the issue of licensing as most of them are not active promoters. “We are active promoters, we might deny someone a license as we are actively competing with them. They are no longer active, but have a wealth of experience in the industry which will make it easy for them to mediate and resolve issues,” he says, adding that Selechami is a lawyer, and his legal expertise is very valuable.
Besides the Advisory Board, he also explains that they are currently working on a model for Licensing of Promoters in association with LEA. This he says will give them a chance to be able to apply for funding from CEDA, and that they are also looking at how they can secure funding from international organizations.
Meanwhile, they recently released a Safe Opening of the Industry Guidelines. Giving a background about what has been happening in the industry, Seagile pointed out that the industry has been immensely affected by the pandemic. Events service providers, performers and all production are struggling and some have resorted to selling their equipment, cars via social media in order to make ends meet. These, he says are service providers who have been in the industry for years, and have employees. Others, he says, have been evicted from their properties by sheriffs of the courts. “it has been a bad experience for our members, with some being slapped with civil imprisonment charges due to lack of an adequate financial support system in place,” he says. He also says that they are hard done by the government that has taken all the time in the world to come up with contemplative measures to resuscitate the industry.
“Without immediate action, the negative consequences of this crisis affect much more than our economy. We might not be able to recover from this entertainment shock for many years, losing much more of the richness and diversity of the entertainment and cultural sense,” says Seagile.
The proposed guidelines include, opening regulated events through BEPA and COSBOTS. BEPA wants events to open up to at least 30percent of venue capacity or second alternative, which is 100 and 250 revelers for indoor and outdoor events respectively. They also want events to run to 2000hrs due to curfew. BEPA proposes that they will sell pre- sold tickets for tracing purposes, and that tickets will only be sold to those with negative Covid - test. Venue must be certified by Ministry of Health and Wellness and BEPA. “The venue must have adequate ventilation,” he points out.
Other measures include security ensuring that people social distance, every performer sharing messages about Covid- 19, as well as taking a break of 30 minutes to allow for formulation and sanitization of the place.