Lekopanye Mooketsi
29 September 2008
Jobs in the entertainment industry are once more on the line as government is just about to implement the new liquor regulations which prescribe that nightclubs should close early.
Some nightclub owners fear that their businesses will be liquidated because of the new regulations.
The new regulations would have been enforced in April but nightclub owners took the government to court contending that their special licences were still valid. The High Court granted the nightclub owners a temporary reprieve until their special licences expire.
The government appealed against the High Court ruling but the Court of Appeal also ruled in favour of nightclub operators.
The last special licence expires in September. This means the new regulations will be enforced in October.
This development has caused panic in the entertainment industry.
A random survey shows that Shesheke nightclub in Kasane employs six people, Chez Ntemba (23), Lizard Lounge (10), Lekadiba in Serowe (8), Lekadiba in Bobonong (10), Club Catch (22) (18), Club Magic King in Gabane (16).
Tony's Nite club in Pitsane emp;oys three. Steve Raman, who owns four nightclubs - Ozone, The Shebeen, Satchmo's and Grand West - employs 80 people in all his establishments.
Monty Makhondo, who runs the only nightclub in Kasane, said he is thinking about closing business. To him the new trading hours do not make business sense.
"There will be no business. People come to nightclubs after midnight. If we close at 2am, this means that we would be operating for two hours only," he said.
Makhondo lamented that he invested a lot in the business but now everything is under threat.
Popular music promoter, Supa Letshabo, who runs the Recreational Park in Molapowabojang, said his business is going to be affected by the new trading hours. The Park is renowned for staging music festivals.
Letshabo said he employs 30 people, including security guards but he has already started to retrench staff.
Letshabo, who is also a councillor, said the government has also raised the licence fees for a nightclub from P125 to P2,000 for six months. He said effectively this means that they will be paying P4,000 for a licence in a year, lamenting that this is too much.
He said life is going to be hard because they applied for loans to set up their business. He expressed fears that they might not even be able to pay rent and overhead costs.
Another nightclub operator, James Kayamba of Chez Ntemba decried that their businesses are going to suffer, adding that their employees' jobs are on the line. He said they used to have 31 employees but in April when government announced the new regulations, they reduced the staff to 23.
Kayamba said most of his employees were with the company for seven years when they started. To him, it is going to be painful to lose staff after working with them for so long. He said the government should have considered that they are operating a business and also employing Batswana.
"Nightclubing is not only about beer drinking. Other people go to the nightclub to socialise.
It is not that everyone goes to a nightclub for drinking," he said, adding that other people are attracted by music.
A DJ at Chez Ntemba, Kobamelo Gouso, expressed concern that they are going to lose jobs. "What is going to happen to our families? We support extended family members," he said.
Gouso, who has worked at Chez Ntemba for seven years, said nightclubs cannot operate at the same time with bars as proposed in the new regulations.
"People cannot go to a nightclub to buy a drink at a higher price when a bar is open," he said.
The manager of Satchmo's Jazz Café, Abbie Oromeng, said the clubs face hard times. "We are going to lose our jobs. This is how we earn our living. There are no jobs in this country," she wailed.
"We have young girls who could not continue with their studies due to lack of funds. We also have part time employees who are university students. One of our employees is deaf and he has been working here for a long time," she said.
Oremeng said their jazz joint is a place where people come to socialise and not to get drunk. "A lot of people come here for music. They come here for jazz. How many jazz clubs do we have in this country," she asked.
She said men go to clubs to discuss social issues with their friends over a drink. "We don't have a place where you can unwind. It's not all about drinking. We don't have incidents where people are attacked inside the club. Our security is always monitoring the movements of our patrons. This is a safe place," she said.
She said even musicians are going to be affected by the new regulations. Oremeng said they hire a lot of local musicians to perform at the club.
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