27 Dec 2012

Christmas Day in Natale in the Tonota North constituency is usually a time in which villagers gather at one spot for an inclusive entertainment which caters for  the young and old.

One of the organisers for the festive activities, Jechonias Peter who is also the owner of White Eagles football team explained that football games took centre stage and people thronged such games.     

He said unlike in other areas where the tournament was organised by grouping different villages, in their village it was only their seven teams because of the magnitude of attendance. Peter also pointed out that it was always exciting in the sense that the tourney was hosted every time there was a long holiday such as the Easter, President’s and the Christmas and New year's holidays.

Such an arrangement, he noted, added to the excitement and the popularity of the games and it made the children of Natale residing in other places to want to come home at any given holiday. In addition, he highlighted that besides the fact that they did not have sponsorship, their games were always successful as teams were consistent in contributing the joining fee, which amounted to P1 500.

He said as a way of preventing situations where people entered the grounds without paying, they had made the entrance fee to be affordable, costing P5 for the elders while children paid half the price.

Peter nevertheless, noted that although the event was for the purpose of entertainment, it also promoted the small business in their village as they gave permits at cost of P60 for  people to sell during  the tournament.

At the same time, teams equally shared the gate takings in addition to prize money, which they received after winning the tournament or even for taking part as the consolation prize is P350 for those eliminated in the group stages. The winner got P4 000 while the runners up walked away with P3 000, positions three and four received P2 100 and P1 500 respectively.

Meanwhile this Christmas, they had added another exciting activity as they would be having a Back to School event in which the class of 1984 who were the first intake of their primary school would be coming together for a purpose in their village.

The organiser, Boitumelo Matalisa said they were going to introspect and discuss ways of starting a social club which through it they will be able to organise social responsibility work as way of ploughing back into their village. ENDS