Carefree DJ Sid ready for political gladiators
Oarabile Mosikare | Friday June 27, 2014 16:35
His announcement earlier this year that he was running as an independent candidate for Gaborone Central was greeted with derision by almost everybody. This is particularly because he is facing the mountainous task of displacing the area Member of Parliament (MP) and Botswana Congress Party (BCP) president Dumelang Saleshando. Other big names competing for the seat are Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC) secretary general Gomolemo Motswaledi and the Botswana Democratic Party (BDP)’s councillor Rupert Hambira.
Despite this uphill battle, there is no turning back for Baitsile. The challenges of the constituency, the one place he has called home from childhood, have motivated him to contest.
“The life struggles of the Gaborone Central residents, at the top of the list, unemployment, crime and housing motivated me to get into politics. The failure of government, private sector and all sectors to address issues in the creative/performing arts and grow it also played a factor,” says Baitsile.
Rampant corruption, the plight of single mothers, falling education system are also some of the motivating factors. “Gaborone Central is traditionally the heart of Gaborone. But over the years, us residents of this beautiful area have seen a deterioration of services that has affected our lives negatively. Many residents have moved out of this area to other areas, the gap between the haves and the poor is growing at a fast rate in this area.”
He says: “We have a very good MP, in a political sense, but who by the nature of his leadership in his party, president, is really absent in the area because he has to pay attention to all 57 constituencies. I have hardly seen him in this area in the term he has been BCP president. I honestly believe party presidents should not be MPs as well as that puts residents they are supposed to represent at a disadvantage.”
He says he will be using his strength in the creative/performing arts to create opportunities in all those areas. “Tapping into opportunities in the ICT sector, sports and entertainment tourism will also be an area of close attention. My complete manifesto will come out in August, which will outline these and everything else, watch this space. Talk to me again in August.”
He asserts that he is just an ordinary guy who is blatantly honest and an open book. “Outside of the laws of the country, I live by no rules, no limits, uninhibited, carefree, unapologetically without fear or favour,” says Baitsile. He also holds very liberal views on some of the most controversial issues. He says: “Legalise abortion, motokwane [dagga], same sex marriages, prostitution and keep the death penalty!”.
But who really is Sidney Baitsile?
He is a 48-year-old Sociology graduate from Howard University in Washington DC and a Gaborone Central resident for 42 years. He is also a club DJ, radio and media personality/expert and creative/performing arts advocate. He says the music and radio seed that was sown in him at a very tender age during his infant years at Radisele took the better of him.
“I realised during my stay in Washington DC that radio and Deejaying was my calling. Tried to change to Media and Broadcasting School, but my sponsor, the Education Ministry refused, they recommended I do Sociology as I had completely lost interest in Physiotherapy that I finally graduated in 1991. By that time, my mind was completely made up that when I come back to Botswana, I was going to get a job at Radio Botswana and be also a Club DJ. I had already armed myself with club Deejaying skills by the time I graduated.”
He says upon his arrival in Botswana, he immediately contacted RB1 in search of a job and was turned down not once but three times. “I secured a job at University of Botswana (UB) in the Sociology Department under the current UB Vice Chancellor, Professor Thabo Fako. I also secured one at the then National Health Institute, now called Institute of Health Sciences, to start a Medical Sociology Department. While I was still debating which post to take, an advert came out that RB2 was about to be opened. I approached the team that was setting it up and immediately impressed them.”
He was picked to do the breakfast show. He became the first voice to go on air on the station on April 6, 1992 and hosted the show for the next five years.
He quickly moved up to become the station’s Programme Manager. His last two years on the station, was on the afternoon show.
He was instrumental in the setting up of Gabz Fm.
“I contributed in the tender process with three other people, working on the programming aspect of the tender. Our tender scored the highest points. Became the station’s first programme manager in 2000, a post I held for three years before leaving and joining the Voice as a columnist. My column on the Voice, DJ Sid’s Big Weekend, helped grow the papers brand big time.”
He has also worked for a television production company as production manager, AimCorp Productions (1986-7); record company as distribution manager, Small House Records (2008-9); Duma Fm as Programme Manager (2010-11), “and currently I am doing freelance work for The Echo, writing a column called DJ Sid’s Devil’s Advocate, which is fast becoming very popular too.”
To this day, 43 years after he played his first record in 1970, he continues to be a club DJ, making him arguably the oldest DJ in the country by experience. “I am also currently pioneering the internet radio broadcasting in the country with my online radio station SidFm, which plays exclusively Botswana music. My information technology partner and I are on the verge of building in-store radio stations for major businesses in the country and we are very excited about that. A lot of my time is also taken up by my advocacy for Botswana’s creative/performing arts industry, which is largely ignored in Botswana and given bread crumps, when it can in actual fact be a big contributor to the economy of this country, if it is paid great attention to.”
He is also exploring opportunities in sports and entertainment tourism and waste management. He says his hands are really full, but he is managing and excited.