23 May 2017

As the country gears for the next period of independence celebration, Minister of Youth Empowerment, Sport and Culture Development, Mr Thapelo Olopeng has implored Batswana to prepare for the BOT50+1.

Addressing a media briefing on Tuesday, Minister Olopeng said the BOT50+1 would be celebrated under the same theme of United and Proud, adding that it was therefore imperative that communities contribute in any way possible towards the preparations.

“You will remember that last year,  we celebrated our golden jubilee and it went very well because we all came on board, including you the media by leading with news as well as dissemination of information,” he said.

Furthermore, the minister said this year as the nation celebrated BOT50+1 as a ministry they were not going to change a lot in their branding and the logo would be BOT50+1.

He said as a hosting ministry it was imperative that they kept things  closer to what happened during the Golden Jubilee celebrations, adding that the only difference would be that this year they were not going to do a huge celebration.

He said government intention was to continue with the BOT50 legacy hence flags were still hosted on towers adding that again was to raise awareness and increase the visibility of their principal national symbol.

Minister Olopeng appealed to all Batswana near and far to carry on with the spirit of nationhood by wearing Botswana colours every Friday. He said his ministry this year  had a small budget of P7 Million to host the events only in Gaborone, adding that last year they had a budget to host for the entire country.

He said this year district and sub district would be catered by the local government and rural development ministry.He said as a tradition every year when Botswana celebrated its independence, the spice of the day was football game and this year would be no different.

He said they were working with Botswana National Sports Commission and Botswana Football Association to try and help the ministry with ideas regarding the match.

He said sometimes they sent four to five invites to different national teams, adding that teams around that time always had different assignments hence it was not always easy to find an opponent.

Minister Olopeng said this year again they would not look for a team from different continent but their main focus would be identifying a team from Africa.

“But bear in mind we are always limited by the budget to invite a team outside Africa continent. ENDS