By Thabang Morutloa
The Bokone Bophirima Business Forum and some local artists have called on the department of Arts, Culture, Sports and Recreation in the North West, to ensure that in the future, everyone benefits from the province’s annual Mahika Mahikeng Cultural Music Festival. The call for inclusivity of local artists has compelled the department to postpone the event to March 2023. Bokone Bophirima Business Forum acting secretary, Katlego Rakuba, said the department makes it difficult for the local businessmen to benefit from the event in its current form and hence he welcomed the postponement. “Local business people have never benefited from that even before because there are red tapes in that department, red tapes in the processes of the Mahika Mahikeng tender. We have never benefitted anything from it. The department knows exactly what it is doing. It has only been one person that has been given an opportunity to organise this event for years,” Rakuba said. One of the local artists, Kenosi Kehilwe, is in agreement with Rakuba that the event does not serve its purpose and this is frustrating to the artists. “So we condone the postponement on the terms that the whole process will be transparent. This kind of event is supposed to benefit the economy of the province and offer opportunities for people in the province so it must be done in the right way and fairly,” said Kehilwe. Another artist, Xolani Nkonyana said the whole process of organising the event infringes on the rights of many. “The rights of residents, the rights of artists, and the rights of local businessmen were all violated by only affording one person the opportunity to organise this sort of event for years. So we are happy that the event has been postponed to stop acts of corruption within the department,” Nkonyana said. The spokesperson for the department of Arts, Culture, Sports and Recreation in the North West, Shuping Sebolecwe, said the event was postponed to ensure compliance with supply management laws, regulations, and practices as far as the awarding of the tender is concerned. The festival, which was scheduled to take place from the 8th to the 10 of December this year, will now be hosted from the 9th to the 11th of March next year. Mahika Mahikeng Cultural Music Festival was last hosted in 2018, after stopping in the year in 2019, which was followed by complete closure because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
