27 Apr 2015

Low rainfall experienced this ploughing season did not discourage Ebat Guest Lodge from celebrating its annual Northern Letlhafula cultural festival in Tati Siding on April 25.

Giving a keynote address at the festival, Minister of Youth Sport and Culture (MYSC), Thapelo Olopeng, encouraged the community of Tati Siding to preserve culture for future generations. Minister Olopeng said every ethnic group had its own distinct culture and urged them to go back to their roots and eat traditional food.

He said there had been adoptions and exchanges of cultural practices between the ethnic groups and tribes over time and an acceptable degree of consistency had been established.

The minister also encouraged young people to take culture as a weapon to their health that could protect them from non-communicable diseases.

He said health practitioners encountered challenges on how to fight non-communicable diseases, but advised the community to change their eating habits so that they could be able to fight chronic diseases. Minister Olopeng said he was going to call all stakeholders to map a way to have an annual plan of celebrating culture through commemorations.

For his part, the Assistant Minister of Agriculture, Fidelis Molao encouraged farmers to produce their own food, adding that there was acute food shortage in Botswana and a lot of food was being imported from other countries and farmers should be serious about farming.

However, Molao promised that next year, the Northern Letlhafula cultural festival would be improved. Earlier, Kgosi Simon Nkgageng of Tatisiding asked the two ministers to support the festival to ensure its growth.

Kgosi Nkgageng also appreciated the fact that the cultural festival was in its ninth year and encouraged those who attended to learn from each other’s cultures.  ENDS