BOMU president admonishes wayward musicians
Patricia Edwin | Thursday March 6, 2014 16:53
Pheto was the keynote speaker at the launch of District Chapter Three of BOMU in Francistown and its committee.
He said that if Botswana musicians wanted to go far they should also begin to behave and stop featuring in the media for all the wrong reasons.
“Some of the reports that we receive at the office leave us wondering if some people are normal,” he said.
He said that the time to hide things has come to an end because Botswana needs reputable artists to represent the country.
He added that sometimes artists complain that some of their peers are always preferred over others by always getting performing jobs. But The Lekunutu Le Morena star argued that complaining artists should first look at how the preferred artists handle themselves.
Pheto further said that musicians should also try to stay away from copying wrong conduct by other artists who are notorious for misbehaving.
“Music is spiritual and there are other musicians out there with a wrong agenda,” he added.
He further said that a musician does not need to be ill-mannered in order to show that they are a ‘superstar’.
“Once you do that you will lose value and also your product will lose value. That is why in the end you will be complaining that you are not taken seriously because you are not taking yourself seriously,” he said.
“The BOMU president also complained that ill-mannered artists who engage in immoral and unethical behaviour actually affect the level of music in this country in a negative way,” he added.
He said that if musicians are ill-treated they should learn to report issues to the police and leave them to do their job.
The chairman of the District Chapter Three is Thapelo Maleke best known as MC Maswe.
Meanwhile, the secretary of BOMU District Chapter Three Fumani Tekere said that musicians in Botswana are being drowned by piracy and also that artists should benchmark from other markets and bring out products that can compete internationally.
BOMU now has 10 district chapters in the whole country but will soon restructure to eight as two in Gaborone will be closed down.