16 Sep 2020

Jwaneng Galaxy FC on Tuesday opened a bar and restaurant  in line with their strategy of becoming a commercial entity.

That was in addition to the nightclub and sports shop the club had been operating in the past years.

In an interview, the club’s spokesperson, Mr Tankiso Morake explained that the bar and restaurant were part of their ambitions to become a commercial entity and be financially self-sustainable in future.

“As a company you always have an intention of attracting shareholders and having an established source of revenue and businesses is one way of attracting potential shareholders.

At the moment our current main financial backers are the Debswana Jwaneng Mine, and because of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is only realistic that we should expect their financial assistance to be limited in the near future because of poor diamond sales. So we have to make hay while the sun still shines by venturing into revenue generating operations,” he said.

Mr Morake said even before the pandemic struck, Debswana Jwaneng Mine had indicated that it might have to review financial assistance in cash to the club and  consider support in kind.

“The place where we have opened the bar and restaurant belongs to the mine and because they are our partners, we are only paying reasonable monthly rental. It is the mine’s contributions as a partner,” he said.

On the restaurant and bar, Mr Morake said the new venture was a decent and upmarket place that was different from the existing drinking joints in town.

“We wanted to establish a place with a decent environment where even top ranking officials could go and entertain themselves or their friends if they so wished. Most bars and restaurants in Jwaneng are of a lower standards where it is a challenge to have a decent social outing,” he said.

He further said the restaurant provided both sit-in and take-away services at reasonable prices.

“We also plan to add in future a conference facility as a way of boosting returns,” he said.

Meanwhile, the club had recently roped in veteran football administrator Mr Bennett Mamelodi as their Chief Executive Officer and also appointed Mr Matshediso Kowa as technical director tasked with developing young talent for export to lucrative international leagues, thereby generating additional revenue for the club.

The two positions are new. ENDS