Fading Domboshaba goes for election
Koketso Kgoboge | Wednesday October 18, 2017 13:11
The AGM will be held on November 4 in Domboshaba at the cultural village. The festival is in its 18th year of existence. At the past edition of the festival the board was at the receiving end of criticism from the guest speaker, Anthony Matenge. The former statesmen felt the board was not doing enough to resuscitate the declining cultural festival. He called the board to meet immediately after the festival to arrange for an elective AGM to usher in new members with fresh perspectives that could save the fading festival. Three weeks later the board heeded the call and the AGM is on the cards. DCT board deputy secretary Smarts Shabani confirmed the development. Shabani said the AGM is opened to the public. He said DCT has invited chiefs from all villages in the northeast, all stakeholders and the subscribing members of Domoboshaba.
He said the agenda of the AGM will be made of three key issues; the board of directors detailed report of the past three years, the financial report and the new board elections.
“For transparency reasons and an opportunity to solicit and share more ideas the AGM is open to the public. However, the electives will be restricted to subscribing members only,” he said. Shabani encouraged the youth to come forth and stand for leadership positions in the board. He said inclusion of the youth would bring innovative ideas that are fundamental in keeping the cultural festival relevant.
He said the challenge is that youth are not keen in positions of cultural organisations particularly when it is just volunteerism.
“The youth are the key components of such activities as they still have the years to carry the heritage and pass it to others hence its fundamental to have them in leadership positions,” he said. He said the outgoing board should have vacated the office back in March, but had to be delayed as the preparations of the most recent festival had just kicked in. He revealed that the outgoing members of the board would also be seeking re-election. “Everyone will be considered according to their merits and will be treated equally as the rest of those seeking positions in the board.”
Shabani commended his colleagues for securing two plots at Domboshaba, fencing the cultural village and constructing the ablution bloc in their three-year tenure. He said necessities such as water and electricity continue to be a challenge as the village lies outside the country’s water and sanitation reticulation map. Shabani revealed that the vision is to have a self-sustainable cultural village that will help the trust to be financially upright to ensure it compensates for the promotion of the iKalanga heritage. He said volunteerism is one of the reasons that are holding back the growth of the festival.