07 Dec 2015

The district gender committee in Lobatse recently brought together men in a football tournament to educate them about the need to kick out violence against women and a girl child.

Four teams comprising took part in the tournament. In his remarks prior to commencement of the tournament, Motswedi kgotla’s Kgosi Kgotlaetsile Motsamai said government had found it befitting to set aside 16 days to observe, pay attention to and spread a message against gender-based violence.

He said it was therefore fit for Lobatse gender committee to host such a tournament with the focus being on men after the realisation that men had passion for sport, especially football.

It was therefore a great platform to combine education against gender-based violence (GBV) with sport as the message could be easily disseminated to men in an environment that they love.

Kgosi Motsamai said men were faced with a lot of challenges that led them to being involved in acts that were against the law including negligence of child maintenance and care as well as murder and rape.

He said men were charged with a responsibility to play a leading role in taking care of their families. He said it had been evident that men who seemed to be unable to take a leading role in taking care of their families were frustrated by this and end up resorting to acts of violence.

Soccer tournaments, he said, were of great importance as they created a platform for men to establish relationships with other men and an atmosphere to open up among themselves to share ideas on how to tackle challenges.

He therefore encouraged men not to shy away from sharing problems, but to come forth and share ideas on how to tackle daily challenges they come across as men. Informed and empowered men, he said, play a leading role in contributing to the growth of the country’s economy.

For her part, Lobatse District gender committee secretary, Ms Kutlo Mophalane said the aim of the tournament was to mainstream gender issues through sport. Ms Mophalane encouraged men who took part in the soccer tournament to kick the ball as hard as possible as a symbol of kicking out GBV.

She especially urged them to also play a leading role in eradicating gender based violence against. She also advised the teams to come up with projects and programmes that are focused on empowering women economically to assist women to come out of poverty.

As it has been realised that at most, GBV is perpetrated by the fact that men are more economically empowered than women, she said it was therefore high time that men come up with plans to economically empower women.

She said the team that lifted the trophy was expected to play a leading role in going around Lobatse and educating other men on issues of GBV.  Four teams; Letsopa Football Club from Motswedi, Big Six Football Club from Peleng, the Lobatse Town Council (LTC) Football Club and Police Football Club locked horns in the tournament.

In the first round of the tournament, Big Six beat Police 4 - 2 and LTC also beat Letsopa 4 - 2. Big Six therefore locked horns with LTC at the finals where upon the former emerged champions after walloping the latter 2- 0.

Big Six team got gold medals and a trophy while LTC were awarded silver medals. ENDS