23 Sep 2019

Race Control Consultancy, working with Ka Isago Investments and Botswana Motor Sport, will organise a 7 000 kilometre motorsport event called Morolong Cross Country Rally in September next year.

The race will start and finish in Good Hope in Borolong and go through every district in Botswana and possibly parts of Namibia and Zambia.

Race organiser, Thabiso Seobamo explained in an interview during the race activation on Saturday in Good Hope that they aimed to position the race as a premier motorsport event in Africa.

Seobamo said the race would highlight tourism destinations, environment and monumental sites in Botswana.

Seobamo, who is head of the automobile section of motorsport in Botswana, said the main competition would be held in 14 daily stages.

“Each stage will cover 300-400 kilometres, which means the competition will last around two weeks.

Riders will go through monumental and heritage sites to promote sport tourism. We want to promote leisure at the same time people compete in sport,” he said.

He pointed that they were working with an international company from the United Kingdom to assist in preparation of the route.

“We are expecting international riders to come here next year and compete in this event. We hope that this rally will open us to the world because our terrain is good in terms of safety and political stability,” he said.

The event activation comprised car spinning as well as motor and quad bike show.

Another organiser of the race, Goitsemodimo Onneetse said they want to use the competition to elicit interest in sport tourism especially in Borolong area.

Onneetse said the rally would not be limited to off road and motor bike competitions only.

“The concept is much bigger and includes sports tourism in general. Other activities next year will be sky diving, car spinning, horse and dog racing, as well as shows by different categories of cars such as Altezza and VWs,” she said.

Onneetse said showcase activities would be held in Borolong and they expected the community there to tap into economic opportunities availed by the event.

She said they were planning another activation activity for Good Hope in November as a way of sensitising people about the event next year.

She further said other activation events would be held next year in villages in the Kgalagadi district.

Onneetse said they were working on finding sponsors for the event because it would need millions of Pula to be successful.

“Some companies, which we have approached have promised to assist. Our dream is to eventually turn this event into a world class event. We also want to attract more women into motor sport because it is currently being dominated by men,” she said.

She said registration for the rally would commence in November.

Onneetse, who does community empowerment through her organisation, Ka Isago Investment, said they also wanted to use the event to empower underprivileged people from Borolong.

“I spent six months in the Borolong in 2016 doing community service engagement to understand challenges faced by people in this area. I realised that there were challenges of high unemployment and poverty. We then decided to come up with the concept of Morolong rally to help uplift and empower people in this area,” she said. ENDs