16 Mar 2020

Minister of Youth Empowerment, Sport and Culture Development Tumiso Rakgare says school sport may be reinstated in the second term.

This follows last week’s announcement by Ministry of Basic Education that school sport would be suspended for a year to enable the ministry to manage a P32 million overtime debt.Addressing a press conference March 16, Mr Rakgare explained that the school sport programme had proven  unaffordable  hence the suspension.

He said the two ministries had been in communication with the view to resolve issues that led to the suspension. The minister said a task team made up of representatives of both ministries and other stakeholders would be established to review the programme and propose a sustainable model for school sport.

 Their mission, he said, was for school sport to continue.

Minister Rakgare said schools were the best place for sport development in Botswana and the point from which children could be exposed to a variety of skills and competition from a tender age.

“All we need is a sustainable model and the commitment of all parties. The burning issue currently with the school sport programme is the huge cost,” he said.

Stressing the importance of school sport, Mr Rakgare said given that not enough was done to develop talent a tender age, schools were the country’s only hope.

He said developing children at an early age would help make Botswana competitive. 

Concerning the COVID-19 outbreak, the minister said the pandemic had disrupted all spheres of life including sport. 

“The ministry has taken medical advice on this public health crisis and we have imposed a moratorium on external travel of our national teams and hosting any international teams until further notice,” he said. 

He encouraged sport associations and those not falling in mainstream codes to postpone events and activities unless they were absolutely necessary. ends