Creatives to benefit from COVID-19 FNB relief fund
Spira Tlhankane | Saturday April 18, 2020 20:57
Jazz musician Thabang Garogwe, who has been advocating for other artists when it comes to payment of creative royalties told Mmegi that this is a commendable gesture on the bank’s part.
'This gesture from FNBB cannot be ignored because relief is what artists need since events had been cancelling before the lockdown. It's a good step in the right direction,' he said.
Garogwe added that right now artists are not working and have families to feed and still have to attend to the basics of life.
'Already I should have released an album and that has been affected because there is no money as most of us live a hand to mouth survival, especially at this point in time where there are no shows,' he said.
For her part, the President of Botswana Entertainment Promoters Association (BEPA) Zenzele Hirschfeld said they want to thank FNBB for the generouos gesture. She said as BEPA they have been engaged with the 'I lost my gig’ campaign.
'There has been a lot of panic and as the creative industry we have been wondering what was going to happen to a lot of us. The good thing is that MYSC as a custodian ministry has been engaging us on the COVID-19 issues. As an industry that is viable and contributes to the growth of the economy we are very humbled by what FNBB has put into place for us,' she said.
Hirschfeld said this shows that they are being recognised, especially now that the industry has been shut down as a result of the novel coronavirus. She said BEPA as an important stakeholder hopes to be engaged by FNBB through this whole process.
Although FNBB through its foundation stipulated that the creative industry as a whole will benefit, FNBB CEO Steven Bogatsu on BTV had only mentioned the performing arts, which caused confusion for visual artists and other creatives.
To dispel the confusion within the visual arts space, Thapong Visual Arts Centre’s Reginald Bakwena said FNB's gesture is good for the whole creative industry, especially in this pandemic.
'This will give us an opportunity to come up with projects, which will address COVID-19 in a creative manner. It's good for FNBB to remember the industry like other sectors because we need support financially,' the coordinator said. Bakwena said this is not going to be easy to make money due to government restrictions to combat the virus.
'This is a great opportunity for us to exercise our artistic knowledge, which will make people who follow music, visual arts, theatre, poetry to easily relate to the message and pass it on to the public. He also said a large number of young people are into the performing arts and this will help them a lot.
He commended FNBB for the continued support of the arts.
'They have supported Thapong by funding and building the cafe through the foundation,' he said.