01 Jul 2014

The chairperson for the Jwaneng Umbrella Ward Development Committee, Justice Motaung, has hailed the Botswana Tourism Board and Jwaneng Town Council for giving them the opportunity to benefit from the Toyota 1 000 Desert Race that took place during the weekend.

He said they were given 16 market stalls to boost their financials through leasing such stalls. “We were given these stalls for free and we divided them amongst the eight ward development committees including the umbrella. We decided that the committees that could not utilise their stalls should lease them to individuals and the money will go towards the development of those wards,” he said.

Motaung said the stalls next to the starting point were leased for P350 each while those at the council stadium were leased for P800 each for the duration of the event. He was optimistic that the latter would make profit because of the music festival that took place at the stadium on  June 28.

Motaung noted that since this was the first time for Jwaneng to host the race, the evaluation meeting that will take place afterwards would help them to prepare better next year so that they could optimally benefit from the event.

One of the residents who had rented a stall at the stadium, Eldah Sekgwathe said even though others felt cheated with the P800 charge, she accepted it because she expected to make a lot of profit.

She said she was planning to take advantage of the night long music festival which attracted a lot of people who had thronged Jwaneng for the race. Nonetheless, there were those who thought the P800 charge was too much for a bushy place with no structures.

The festival organiser, Otto von Rudloff of Brave Heart said apart from including local people in the entertainment lineup, they also gave ward development committees market stalls so that they could make profits and enhance their financial standings.

He said this was a way of giving back to the community because the proceeds from the stalls would be used for developing the host town. ENDS