A group of music artists are plotting a campaign to remove the Minister of Youth Empowerment, Sport and Culture Development, Tumiso Rakgare, from the Mogoditshane constituency. The group that prefers anonymity has indicated that they have embarked on an ongoing campaign to recruit other music artists to add to their campaign.
According to the movement Spokesperson, the campaign was motivated by Rakgare’s treatment towards musicians in the wake of Covid-19. “The campaign will solely focus on removing Rakgare from Mogoditshane constituency because we want him to feel the same hunger we felt since last year. Currently we are planning to ensure that we recruit as many artists as we can to register in the constituency. Some prefer that we acquire BDP membership so that we can vote for his competitor in the primary elections while some are of the view that we should target the general elections,” said the movement Spokesperson.
This publication understands that the movement has so far registered over 50 individuals. The movement spokesperson also indicated that the campaign will not be controlled by any politician, adding that they will decide as a collective on whether to target BDP Primary elections or the general elections.
“We do not want people to think that we are serving the interests of politicians. All we care about is our industry, it has gone through difficult challenges and we did not get any attention from Rakgare as our Minister,” said the movement spokesperson.
Furthermore, he said: “I do not understand why he continued to encourage us to register with a toothless organisation called COSBOTS knowing very well that they pay us peanuts for our hard work, we tried in vain to request for a meeting on a series of issues”.
For their part, Botswana Musician Union President, Fresh Lesokwane, distanced themselves from the movement saying that the said artists are not members of their union. He also said as far as the union is concerned, their members are happy with the Minister, adding that he has assisted them greatly since he assumed the Ministerial role.
“I do not want to believe that these people can even host a music show and have a satisfactory attendance, they are saying all these things because they are not our members and they are also not abreast of updates we always receive from the Minister,” said Lesokwane.
Lesokwane also said Rakgare has assisted the creatives, adding that after many years of advocating for the arts council, Rakgare has ensured that it is established.
“Rakgare has done so much for us, he even sponsored our recent Annual general meeting, so there is no logic in what those people are seeking to achieve,” added Lesokwane.