Charity Date Auction flops
Nnasaretha Kgamanyane | Tuesday November 11, 2014 15:20
The chairperson of Youth Botswana, Gugu Mavuma, said after he was told that one of their biggest sponsors pulled out of the event late on Friday, he advised his colleagues to cancel the event. Mavuma claimed that despite his counsel his colleagues went ahead with the event.
“I told them that I would not be part of that event as we had promised our clients that we were going to give them a high-profile event. It was supposed to be a red carpet event. I knew that some people were not going to attend the event as long as it was taken to BNYC,” he added.
Mavuma said that after receiving the bad news about the sponsor pulling out, he told his colleagues to refund everyone who bought tickets and postpone the event to next year.
The event started off on a bad note following an announcement a few hours earlier that the venue had been changed.
The announcement was made on the event’s Facebook page on Saturday afternoon. The announcement alone created confusion for many people who were interested in attending the event. With the venue moved to Botswana National Youth Council (BNYC) hall, some individuals who bought tickets waited patiently in vain for the event to start.
Some of them ended up opting to go home, as the entertainment was also not a thrill. A few celebrities who graced the event also looked bored and stood outside the hall while some left to take care of business.
Celebrities such as radio personalities, politicians, TV presenters, bachelors and bachelorettes were supposed to be auctioned like rare pieces of art, all in the name of charity.
Unfortunately that was not the case as the emcee tried to sell an unknown artist just fresh on the hip hop scene. The audience was clearly unhappy and seemed too demoralised to even make a bid.
According to the organisers, photos were supposed to be included with a short bio, fun facts and funny quotes to help get people interested in bidding, but none of this happened.
“As for the date, this will be left to the celebrity, the bachelor or bachelorette and the person winning the bid to decide on a suitable date for a dinner, movie,” the organising committee had stated in their Facebook page.
The first Annual Charity Date Auction was organised by Youth Matters Botswana. The person to bid the highest would have gotten a chance to take his or her favourite celebrity on a date.
Even though this initiative seemed like great concept and got people excited, as a fresh idea, it was appealing to more than 1,000 friends.