Thinus Ferreira
Botswana's government is working to create the country's first-ever film commission, as well as a film fund, and is also busy with building out film studio capacity to rapidly expand the Southern African country's film and TV output capability.
The government is working with the American entertainer Steve Harvey and his Steve Harvey Global company, as well as Duncan Irvine, the founder and CEO of Forge Ignite Media & Entertainment, a film and TV consultancy. Irvine is the director of the Botswana Ignite project.
The aim of Botswana Ignite is to rapidly expand the country's TV and film sector, to make it commercially viable, to create local content and to aggressively attract international production work.
The project has also set up a TV academy for Botswana in the capital of Gaborone that just started offering courses in scripted and unscripted content, as well as a specialist wildlife film school in Kasane that specialises in natural history film production.
"Botswana has diamonds but we want to expand our creative industry. Steve Harvey visited and decided to help us with our vision," Goitsemang Morekisi, secretary for the ministry of state president, said at MIP Africa 2024 in Cape Town, South Africa.
"In 10 years Botswana will become one of the top film industries on the African continent," Harvey said.
"Nigeria and South Africa have a headstart by leaps and bounds in capability - make no mistake about it. They have a real film and TV industry, everything is here, they have real production companies and infrastructure - everything is here."
"What I'm trying to get Africa to understand is how to take advantage of all this rich talent that is on this continent and to get the opportunity to work," he said.
Duncan Irvine said Botswana Ignite is also helping the Botswana government to set up a governmental film rebate scheme that will be structured "to accelerate and fuel the country's film economy and for people to create production companies because local production companies in Botswana will be the engine building the next generation".
He says "Botswana has a very small but very passionate film and TV industry but it's been quite inwardly focused".
"It's been Botswana Television (Btv), YTV and that's where producers have been selling their shows to, and to South Africa in particular and some have left Botswana to go and work overseas. Part of the excitement is that we're trying to attract a lot of those experienced people back."
Steve Harvey said, "this programme we're doing here in Botswana - my goal is to take it to other countries around Africa - so that you can eventually go anywhere in Africa and be a cameraman, can go anywhere and be a set designer, you can go anywhere and do lighting".
On 12 September a Botswana adaptation of the Family Feud competition show, Family Feud Botswana, starts recording.
Steve Harvey said "next year we're going to have more studio space built. We've already located some areas and we are going to have these studios built there and then we're going to attract outside business through film tax rebates."
'The caveat is going to be: You can't bring your foreign company to Botswana unless you hire 25% local people from Botswana or else you can't do it. What are they going to say? No. They will say yes because they want the tax rebate."
