Where there is a will there is a way. This is the saying that encouraged Mogametsi Golekane, director of Artmovel Botswana- a furniture manufacturing company based in
Gaborone West, to start her business. She says that after a long time struggling to create a company that would “serve Batswana and Botswana residents, I finally made it in 1996 when this company came into being”.
At the company’s furniture making workshop, also based in Gaborone West, they have about 20 people working to make unique furniture for a large clientele base in Botswana. Their clients are mainly made up of people who are wary of trendy expensive furniture shops, which sell through the undesirable hire purchase system.
Besides, Golekane says, people come to her because as a manufacturer and not supplier, they know they can come up with their own designs to suit their personal needs and convenience.
“I have people working as carpenters, kitchen fitters, wall wardrobe designers, and those who deal with the joinery and upholstery part of the business,” she said. Unlike other local entrepreneurs, who often rely on the benevolence of the government for funding, she says her company, which she co-owns with a Portuguese national, was started from scratch, and has risen to become a powerful force in the local industry.
Golekane reveals that she has always had a love for furniture-making, which she couldn’t take advantage of, until she met Jose Perez, a furniture making expert from Portugal. Perez had been contracted by the Botswana government to come and teach and inspire locals interested in acquiring furniture-making skills or what she terms furniture technology. As a protege in this course, she learnt about angles, how to make curves, how to cut a certain size, and what kind of machine to use for carrying out a certain task. In the business of furniture making, she says that one needs bending machines, powder coating, cutting machines and spray painting machines, which she says, have a compressor and a gun used to store and spray the furniture to give it an impressive appeal.
To make a dinner table, she reveals that she makes a design, which she draws on paper then highlights the angles that will be used in coming up with the finished project.
“When I make angles, I check them, measuring to see if they are well balanced and accurate. This is important as it helps you to make good estimates and ensure that at the end of the day the product is not only finished, but also well balanced and able to stand on its own and carry some weight on it. The dinner table in particular, needs to have a strong support system so that if you put a glass top on top of the stand, it doesn’t fall or collapse. That is why we use strong steel to make the stands,” she says.
Golekane’s company does not only supply individuals, but some of her designs can be seen in local furniture shops.
