COSBOTS has shown lack of transparency with musicians’ money

It has never been our intention to declare a cold war on COSBOTS, or be involved in a public fall out with COSBOTS. However, BOMU is done with deskbound behaviour of sitting on the side- lines while its name and integrity is dragged on the mud by those who have chosen to deprive Botswana Artists their economic rights.

While COSBOTS has released fictions figures that local content on all radio stations stands at 21 percent, COSBOTS has dismally failed to prove this by showing radio station to radio station how much local music they play and their source of data. BOMU will not ignore this hopeless media tour of half- truths by an organisation that has shown gross lack of transparency with public and musicians’ money. What is happening at COSBOTS is a decade and a half of undisturbed creative Industry financial heist of the highest degree. And we can only hope that Batswana will realise that musicians are not fools who will blindly accept justification of being paid 1 Pula in this time and era; while around 11 Million Pula remains unaccounted for. We have kept quite hoping that COSBOTS will agree to meet with us so we can together resolve our issues. To this day; COSBOTS is refusing to meet with us and has rather opted for a media tour.

COSBOTS must be ashamed that out of the 13 million Pula collected in 2020, it has distributed 2 million pula. The big question is where has the 11 million gone to? There cannot be fairness and equity in such kind of situation where musicians’ works are used to pay and sustain families and exorbitant lifestyles whilst the creative people are swimming in hunger and debts. COSBOTS Board also needs to look at itself and be ashamed that for the past 15 years, it has failed to collect all other types of royalties except for music, and all this time it has failed to fully account for this money.

We also want to put on record that as BOMU, we have never received any funds from COSBOTS. If COSBOTS paid out some money we would want to know who it was paid to. And what was the purpose of that payment. And whether that purpose was fulfilled. If the purpose was not fulfilled what steps did COSBOTS take to recover their money. We have never received money from COSBOTS. Our Vice President - Finance is Letsweletse Moshabi, a transparent man. We invite anyone, including COSBOTS to access our accounts to verify that COSBOTS as usual has simply decided to not tell the truth. We advise that enriching themselves and attributing such to BOMU is not only a behaviour of people of the night, but it is also equally a moral decay. COSBOTS Board and its handlers must note that the very existence of COSBOTS was enabled by BOMU. BOMU invested its resources to bring to this country organisations such as; CISAC, SAMRO, IIPI to name a few; to assist in the drafting of the organisations founding Constitution. It is BOMU who invited many other right holder groups through the Registrar of Companies to assist in the formation of COSBOTS. Sadly COSBOTS was to be later hijacked by careerist who see COSBOTS as an opportunity for board allowances. If you could all refer to former Trade and Industry Minister Neo Moroka’s speech at the official launch of the Copyright Act at GICC on the 11th of November 2006, he acknowledged BOMU and its President then Bafana Phempheretlhe Pheto for their selflessness in making sure that Government passes the Copyright Act. It was us at BOMU who lobbied the then Members of Parliament, in particular; Botsalo

Ntuane and Keletso Rakhudu to be our voices in Parliament on the matter. It was not these people of the night who are refusing to engage us. BOMU will soon be writing to the Copyright Arbitration Board a formal complaint on behalf of its members, who some double as COSBOTS members. And out of public interest a specific forensic audit on the financial management at COSBOTS, including review of all existing company financial and operational policies. BOMU appeals to the nation and artists at large, to join in our call for the liberalisation of the royalty industry in Botswana. The COSBOTS monopoly is a poison to the Botswana Creative Industry. We also call upon the Minister of Trade and Industry Mmusi Kgafela to bring to Parliament an amended Copyright Act, failure which the current situation will lead to lawsuits that may paralyse the Royalties Industry and all gains the Government has made in the Creative Industry lost.