05 Oct 2015

 Minister of Youth, Sport and Culture, Thapelo Olopeng has tasked the Parachute Association Botswana to train more Batswana on parachuting.

Speaking at the Makgadikgadi Epic closing ceremony held at Nata Sanctuary on Saturday, Olopeng said that was because there were only a handful of Batswana able to do sky-diving.

He said his desire was to have more Batswana able to drop off from the sky with parachutes in Botswana colours at the country’s 50^th Independence celebrations next year.

As such, the parachute association has a period of a year to have trained more Batswana on the sport.

On the other hand, Olopeng said his ministry had partnered with that of Environment Wildlife and Tourism to diversify tourism in the country.

He said introducing sport tourism, which so far featured Khawa Dune Challenge, Toyota Kalahari Botswana 1 000 Desert Race as well as the Makgadikgadi Epic, was one way of having more Batswana take part instead of being spectators.  

On next year’s independence celebrations, Olopeng said as organisers, his ministry would make a provision in its budget to buy parachutes to be used on the day.

Thus, he encouraged Batswana to take up the challenge and learn from the professionals.

Meanwhile, tourism minister, Tshekedi Khama appreciated Batswana who came in numbers to support the Makgadikgadi Epic.

Minister Khama said the event would only be a success if there was support from the public.

He noted that when the event started, attendance stood at about 2 000 spectators but the numbers had this year increased to about 3 000 people who did not only come to watch but also take part in some activities.

Further, he added that with such attendance, it would also encourage others to take part in the next edition because there would be information sharing regarding the event.

Nata Conservation Trust chairperson, Kerileng Garebolele applauded tourism minsitry and Botswana Tourism Organisation for staging the event in their region. That, Garebolele said had brought a different feel of tourism which had everybody taking part in it.

Again, he said as an annual event, it would in turn change lives of those taking advantage of business opportunities attached to it. ends