29 Nov 2015

Come 7 December, the city of Francistown will once again host a big sporting event as preparations for the fourth edition of Botswana Games are at an advanced stage.

It emerged during a local organising committee (LOC) meeting on Friday November 27 that progress on the preparations was satisfactory as thousands of sport lovers from all over the country are expected to invade the city that is fast becoming a hot spot for sporting activities.

The chairperson of the LOC Boyce Mangole, who is also the city’s principal district officer  announced that the games organising committee (GOC) will settle here from Gaborone on Tuesday December 1 for the final preparations.

The head of the organising committee, Bobby Gaseitsewe and Mangole will brief the city’s council meeting on Wednesday to bolster the consultations that began in May.

Mangole countered recent media reports that claimed that the Gaborone based committee and the local committee were not working well together.

The reports further claimed that effectively the LOC was non-existent, and that the local community and civic leaders have not been involved.

“The LOC does exist and it is very much alive and active. We are working hand in hand with the GOC and nothing is behind in terms of preparations,” Mangole maintained.

He said the Botswana Games was publicly launched in May at the Francistown club where the Minister of Youth, Sport and Culture, Thapelo Olopeneg and his permanent secretary, Ntabeni Malikongwa were present.

Since the launch, he said GOC cadres had regularly visited Francistown for updating purposes, and that both committees recently updated the city’s mayor about the coming tournament.     

Botswana Games is a national multi-sport event that takes place every two years and it involves school-going children aged 19 years and below, the idea being to unearth young talent from all the districts of Botswana. ENDS