25 Mar 2018

Government will support the Region 5 Youth Games, Gaborone 2018 with P26 million.

Briefing the media on progress made in regard to preparations for the games, Region 5 Youth Games, Gaborone 2018 Local Organising Committee (LOC) chairperson, Labbeaus Peloewetse said the P26 million would go towards hosting and preparations and it did not include Team Botswana expenses.

He said Botswana National Sports Commission was in charge of Team Botswana; hence they would be in charge of the team’ s preparations.

He said their total budget was P55 million, adding that they had a shortfall of P16 million, which they believed the private sector would assist in their endeavour to deliver memorable games in December.

“These games are owned by Africa Union Sports Council Region 5, therefore everything that we do, we do in collaboration with the Regional Organising Committee (ROC),” he said.

Peloewetse said ROC were the experts given that they were the ones who conceptualised the games and had been running them in different regions.

Furthermore, he said ROC had been advising the LOC as they had been meeting to ensure that everything was aligned with the purpose of the games.

He said a lot of progress had been made so far, such as availability of facilities   and creating identity for the games.

Currently, he said they were working on the games mascot and other logistics.

AUSC Region 5, chief executive officer Stanley Mutoya said last year, Minister of Youth Empowerment, Sport and Culture Development, Thapelo Olopeng signed a protocol agreement, which was a demonstration of the country’s readiness and willingness to host the games.

He said all the participating countries had signed and finalised the technical rules, which countries would be using to prepare their athletes.

He said they had also developed accreditation and requisite manual adding that they had also finalised the numbers of athletes to take part in the 10 sport codes. Ends