No Kuru dance fest three years on
Leinanyana Tsiane | Tuesday August 19, 2014 15:42
Kuru Development Trust (KDT) board chairperson, Aaron Johannes, informed D’Kar community at a kgotla meeting recently that the dance festival will not be held this year as they have no sponsors.
He revealed that they had managed to secure sponsorship from Debswana, but because of the row between KDT and Letloa Trust, the diamond company decided to pull out of a three-year sponsorship deal they had promised.
He added that the annual dance festival under the auspices of KDT was held annually at the Game Farm, which is owned by the D’Kar community.
Johannes said they found it fitting to inform the residents of D’Kar why the festival would not be taking place as they have been in the dark all along.
According Johannes, the conflict between KDT and Letloa Trust started when Letloa wanted the festival venue to be changed from the Game Farm to Gantsi. The KDT board refused saying the festival is the brainchild of the D’Kar community, which they (KDT) have a strong link with. The quarrel over venue between the two started last year and has not been resolved as yet.
He said the director of Letloa Trust was not happy about the arrangement and used their disagreement to block sponsors from giving KDT funds to run the festival.
Letloa Trust is the mother body to the Kuru Family Organisation ([KFO] the umbrella body for KDT and other member organisations), which provides technical, institutional, financial management and fund-raising support.
“After Debswana pulled out, we secured sponsorship from be Mobile. They requested us to go to Letloa to ask them to write a letter to them (be Mobile) that they (Letloa) are no longer in charge of the festival,” he explained, adding that the letter should also stipulate that KDT would take charge.
He noted that indeed Letloa wrote a letter to be Mobile, but the contained completely different details from those KDT requested, which also led to be Mobile having a change of heart as sponsors.
The director of Letloa Trust, Kaelo Mokomo, has however, denied that they blocked the be Mobile deal from going through.
He said that Letloa managed to secure funds to the tune of P450,000 from be Mobile to sponsor the event, adding that as the mother body of KFO they informed KDT of this.
Mokomo said that all that KDT had to do was to allow Letloa to manage the money since it was their jurisdiction to do so.
“They refused and said they want money to be directed to them and also to have direct communication with the sponsor. Because we wanted to protect the sponsor’s money and manage the money well we also refused to release the funds.
KDT does not have enough capacity to implement good governance and that is where we come in,” Mokomo said.
He also said Letloa Trust is trying their best to enhance good governance and encourage proper accountability of every thebe that members of KFO spend. He added that it is up to the communities of the settlements who are members of KFO to decide where the festival should be held.
Mokomo further said that they have had mini festivals in Qabo, and East and West Hanahai before, adding that it is not a rare occurrence to move the festival to a different venue.
He said the only stumbling block is the KDT board and said Letloa Trust is willing to reconcile.
“We intend to hold meetings with all of KFO to hear their views concerning this issue so that we have a way forward and have the festival next year,” Mokomo said.