The building is visible from the tarred road, a typical fenced bar at first glance. It’s a winter night so there’s no shortage of revellers standing by the bonfire outside in an attempt to fight off the cold.
However, there has to be some reason that the venue is packed with adolescents who would usually be looking for their source of entertainment in GC and that after midnight, the cars just keep rolling in.
A quick look inside reveals this is not a typical setting at all. City slicker youngsters, who usually wouldn’t be caught dead anywhere near a village on a Saturday night, have made a venue in the quaint village of Boatle their weekend destination.
The word is that this place is a nightclub and it’s the venue in which Tshepang ‘T-Izzy’ Motsisi, the Yarona FM personality, is throwing his birthday bash.
There isn’t anything extraordinary about the venue; it’s simply a relatively spacious nightclub with two dance floors and a pool area but its appeal lies in the fact that it’s a setting hard to come by in the city.
Gaborone is infamous for its cramped cafes and restaurants that double as nightclubs and fail to generate the right atmosphere. Nobody likes the idea of grooving at the same venue that they typically come for dinners with their families on special occasions.
‘The Zone’ is a straight up entertainment spot and Motsisi is convinced that the fact that it lies a distance from Gaborone, an around 30-minute drive, is actually a strength and not a weakness.
“Life in Gaborone gets monotonous so people are always looking for a different atmosphere away from the city and ‘The Zone’ provides just that,” says Motsisi.
When a friend, Raymond Taziba, first approached Motsisi with the opportunity to buy the lease to an out-of-town nightclub, the young radio presenter and DJ was apprehensive.
Motsisi warmed to the idea in time and decided to take a gamble, a calculated risk beyond his years, having only just turned 22 mid last month. His new investment is the perfect after-hours getaway for when all the spots in town close up shop.
The young girls and fly boys mingle as seemingly out of place, upscale cars move back and forth in search of parking spaces. Motsisi takes it all in with a smile across his face, knowing full well he may have just stumbled onto a diamond mine. Motsisi hasn’t introduced any revolutionary idea but he has provided a possible solution for a familiar problem ÔÇô finding a weekend venue that appeals to the fickle youth of an increasingly entertainment intolerant Gaborone.
He’ll want to keep the momentum going for as long as possible and he’s off to a good start; 4am on Sunday morning and the venue is still lively and showing no signs of dying down. T-Izzy is in the zone and inviting everyone to tag along for the ride.
