16 Oct 2016

Assistant Minister of Youth Empowerment, Sport and Culture Development, Kefentse Mzwinila says Botswana continues to pledge support towards women and girl participation in sport.
Speaking at the Africa Women and Sport Conference held in Gaborone Octobert 14, Mzwinila also said Botswana was committed to embrace opportunities presented by such conferences to work hard and support structures that drive women agenda.
He said the conference, held under the theme, Reshaping Africa, Women and Sport, would target issues such as influence of culture on women and sport, inclusion in sport and gender based violence in sport, among others.
Thus, he said it was up to the male counterparts to make it easier for girls and women to embrace sport and feel comfortable when playing.
“We need to encourage our daughters, sisters and friends to become more involved in sport by stopping unnecessary criticism, physical and emotional abuse,” he said.
He added that it was again upon the males to be lenient on issues of culture where women and girls were prevented or judged when playing male dominated sports.
Further, he indicated that tremendous growth in women and girls participation had been witnessed in the country since independence, adding however, a lot more can be done to ensure their promotion in sport.
The assistant minister expressed hope that Botswana would learn a lot from the international community and be able to share the knowledge locally as well as with the continent.
Botswana National Sport Commission chairperson, Solly Reikeletseng said they believed in supporting issues of women and sport, hence saw the International Working Group (IWG) on women and sport as a platform to be used to escalate promotion of women in sport. Reikeletseng said given the different challenges on issues of women and sport that Africa was faced with, the conference was to come up with suggestions as well as solutions that would be able to assist in the quest to promote such initiative.
He highlighted that one major issue to look at was promoting sport amongst young girls which he said should not only be seen as a hobby but a career which could better one’s life.
However, he said it was up to administrators, coaches and parents to ensure that there were safe measures in place to encourage and motivate females to partake in sport and acknowledge them where there was a need.
The two-day conference, which gathered participants from countries like South Africa, Namibia, Kenya and Ghana hosted by IWG, paves ways for the 7th World Conference on Women and Sport which would be held in Botswana in May, 2018. ENDS