17 Jul 2018

Minister of Health and Wellness, Dr Alfred Madigele has encouraged Mmathethe/Molapowabojang youth to leverage on the third annual Mmathethe sport festival and start doing sport as a career.

Dr Madigele also area MP said this during the three-day spectacle that ended on Sunday and applauded the initiator and Botswana Football Association (BFA) vice president, Mashlow Motlogelwa for the brainwave. He said the initiative had created a platform for the youth to showcase talent.

Dr Madigele argued that youth could derive social confidence, discipline, leadership skills and mental toughness from sport, to deal with anything life could throw their way. Through sport, he said the youth learnt to be punctual to games and deal with wins and losses, which he described as ‘must have’ life skills that could enable them to aim as much as they could towards their destinations in life without being sidetracked by twists along their paths.

Dr Madigele said sport was a wealth generator the world over and expressed joy that the event, which started with only with seven villages had now covered 15 in a space of three years and thanked sponsors, Bravo Marketing, Geomatics consultants, Enviro Kings and No error investments among others, for making it possible.

Dr Madigele also shared that health ministry recently changed its name to include wellness with a view to direct the nation’s focus to silent killers like heart diseases, diabetes, cancer, chronic respiratory diseases, hypertension, which were mostly influenced by lifestyle especially physical inactivity. He said physical activity reduced the risk of lifestyle related diseases and as such commended the event organisers for promoting healthy living through sport.

Dr Madigele said the initiative complemented government’s efforts to promote sport especially in rural communities and called for more sponsors to come on board.

Kgosi Daniel Mathiba of Mmathethe, for his part urged more sponsors to throw their weight behind the initiative. He said more lives could be changed for the best through sport adding land would be availed for the spectacle in future.

Daniel Motlhabankwe also applauded the organisers for the initiative adding it would inspire many young people across the sub-region to register teams that would play in BFA structures.

Motlhabankwe, father to national soccer star, Tshepho ‘Talk-talk’ Motlhabankwe, said none of the teams in the sub-region from Mmathethe to Mabule played in formal structures.

Meanwhile, Motlogelwa said his vision for the initiative was to unearth talent across the sub-region and enable talented young players to earn a living through sport. He said sport was an industry that could help diversify the economy and create employment for the youth.

He said the festival, which started with football, netball and pool games would include darts, volleyball and horse race among others in the not-too-distant future. ENDS