BOMU emerges from blackout
Goitsemodimo Kaelo | Friday July 10, 2020 16:39
In its near death experience, BOMU has over the years been embroiled in a series of wrangles, particularly between the union’s executive committee and its members.
The union has been dormant since 2018 after some members took the then music body leadership led by Pagson Ntsie to the Advisory and Arbitration Council (AAC).
The AAC then ordered that an interim committee be elected to amongst other things, rebuild legitimate structures of BOMU, the relationships within the organisation and with its stakeholders, arrange for another AGM and prepare for legitimate elections.
More than a year later, a new committee led by interim president, Otsile ‘Ophana’ Ramorwa was put in place to steady the ship and resuscitate the once strong music body.
Interim vice president, Phemelo ‘Fresh’ Lesokwane told Arts & Culture that their first assignment was to rebuild the leadership’s Executive Committee in all 10 districts and organise BOMU Annual General Meeting where a substantive executive committee shall be elected to take over from the interim committee.
“We are an interim committee sent by the government through Advisory and Arbitration Council to resuscitate BOMU and allow members to elect their own committee,” said Lesokwane.
He stated that many artists had lost hope in the music, but hence the need to freshen things up.
“We realised that the past administrations were not following the BOMU constitution. According to Registrar of Societies, the union had not filed return for the past seven to 10 years, so government wanted to dissolve it but we asked to be allowed to rebuild,” he added.
He also stated that many artists outside the capital city had lost faith in the union, as they believed it was only for Gaborone based artists. However, he said the new BOMU will work and advocate for artists welfare across the country. Lesokwane said they have managed to hold elections for all 10 BOMU district chapters across the country as part of preparations for the AGM. The AGM is billed for August 15, 2020 in Gaborone. According to the musician, things look promising at the once troubled music body.
Other interim committee members are Letsweletse Moshabi (Treasurer), Rasina Winfred Rasina (Secretary), while Nkgopolang Tlhomelang and Ntsie are additional members.