14 May 2017

The Minister of Youth Empowerment, Sport and Culture Development, Mr Thapelo Olopeng has said, after the re-organisation of ministries by government in October 2016, the ministry found it critical to re-position itself to encompass the word “Empowerment” for the youth and “Development” for sport and Culture in order to meet the evolving needs for its customers.

Speaking in an occasion to re-brand the ministry, Minister Olopeng said the repositioning comes as a result of consultations which included a review of the impact of the ministry’s programmes and it’s just ended five year strategy.
“Our programmes and services needed to be evaluated to access their relevance, they had to change with times, at the same time borrowing from lessons learnt from previous implementation strategies,” he said.
The ministry also presented its new initiatives geared towards improving Service delivery by unveiling “Se se mo Nkgwaneng” or “What’s in the clay pot”
“Se se mo Nkgwaneng”, a 10 point plan for repositioning of the ministry, which will look at improved communication with customers, where the ministry will introduce a communication centre, accessible through all media platforms called “the war room” to improve communication and feedback to customers.

The minister also said the Tirelo Sechaba participants will be up skilled with vocational training to improve employability and chance of venturing into sustainable businesses.
“We are going to improve the creative industries, we are going to involve a number of initiatives such as an artist directory, Botswana art awards, and the development of a creative industry strategy, there will be changes in time allocated to performing arts during their festivals and music activities,” he added.

He said the ministry would leverage on ICT to improve information access, ,enhance youth character building by supporting youth serving organizations which are based on positive behavior and good conduct as their key principles, review the YDF by introducing changes to accommodate a new dispensation in terms of financing models, turn around time and delivery mechanism to accommodate emerging issues and needs of the youth.
The ministry will develop more sport and recreation, by reviewing centres of sport excellence to streamline and resource to develop top quality athletes.
He said athletics would now be introduced in constituency sports tournaments to enhance participation by the youth to develop their sporting talent.
“We are also consulting on making the fitness programme national and we will make the announcement soon,” the minister said.

Minister Olopeng further said the ministry would set up a youth television channel to broadcast programmes relevant to the interests, needs and aspirations of youth. “Local content will be procured from our youth and our artists in this country. I know we have been talking about this channel for a very long time .I can tell you this, we are ready and before three months from now you will watch BTV 2,” Minister Olopeng said. ENDS