04 Sep 2013

Jwaneng should host a sport festival to take advantage of the many sporting facilities in the mining town.

That was the recommendation of a Jwaneng delegation that attended the Lobatse International Beef Festival in May. The delegation was sent on a benchmarking mission to help Jwaneng on strategies for development and tourism. 

“Jwaneng offers a comparative advantage that can position the town as Botswana’s sporting and leisure capital,” said a delegation representative, Gothataone Radisebo in his presentation to the just-ended Jwaneng full council meeting.

Radisebo, who is a Jwaneng Town Council principal town planner, said it was highly possible for Jwaneng to host several sporting events in the form of a sport festival owing to available sporting facilities that include two football stadia, softball grounds, golf club, rugby club, racquets club, bowling club, swimming pool facilities as well as a multi-purpose hall.

He further underscored the need to resuscitate existing annual events such as the Jwaneng cultural festival, softball tournament, Motor X biking tournament and the Christmas party to promote economic growth and diversification. He said there was potential to diversify the town’s economy and attract other sectors of the economy. 

He said tourism facilities such as the mine park, Sir Seretse Khama monument as well as the amusement park provide an opportunity for such diversification. Radisebo said even though the mine park was currently used as a biodiversity offset project for the mine, it could also be used to support other events and activities intended to promote the town.

“It is recommended that a strategy be put in place that is aimed at turning these facilities into tourist attraction centres,” he noted. He further observed that there was a limitation to use the mine for tourism purposes because it was controlled by Debswana. The rest of the town is administratively under local authorities. 

That, he said, was a setback because the town’s existence was due to the mine which in turn had to be at the core in promoting Jwaneng. He underscored the need to unpack business linkages that support the mining industry so that the town could directly benefit from the mine.

“It is therefore recommended that local authorities should thoroughly engage mine authorities in promoting Jwaneng as a mining town with tourism potential and investment opportunities,” he said.

Meanwhile, councillors lauded the delegation for the good work as well as meaningful recommendations.  Councillor Obed Monkge said he acknowledged the recommendations because Jwaneng has proved to have a potential in sport talent.  Cllr Monkge also said the proposed sport festival could help resuscitate the spirit of sport in Jwaneng.

Cllr Bankinyana Montsiemang argued that there should be proper marketing strategy to attract investors to the mining town. 

“We should come up with ways of attracting investors to our town by reviewing incentives such as rent and land,” he said.

Furthermore, he said the town could create different tourism opportunities by taking advantage of the Trans Kalahari highway that connects South Africa and Namibia.  ENDS