25 Jan 2013

African Stars Sports Development Centre in partnership with Phoenix Bakery will embark on a clean-up campaign on Saturday to maintain a clean and safe environment.

An official from the centre who is also the soccer coach, Tefo Mooki said in an interview today that the objective of the campaign was to use sport as a tool to promote cleanliness amongst the communities.

He said the event was one of their calendar activities, noting that it would take place at Boswelatlou ward.”It is our aim to promote a clean environment and assist other organizations such as councils in managing waste,” he added

The event will attract town leaders, the community at a large to realize the value of sport and actively participate by cleaning their surroundings to mark the event.  After the clean-up campaign, Mr Mooki noted that there would be a football game between Re ba bona ha teams and African Stars teams.

He said since the centre developed young athletes aged between 7 and 17 years, they would be sensitised about the importance of a clean environment. He said children would also learn that a clean Botswana should be the duty of every citizen and that a dirty environment posed high risk to the community.

On Sunday, he explained, they would host a football tournament dubbed ‘Phoenix Youth Football Festival’ which will be held at old Lobatse Stadium and the town clerk was expected to officiate at the event.

About eight teams comprising of six for boys aged 12 and 14 and two for girls aged under 14 will be involved. Mr Mooki said the aim of the tournament was to give the children exposure of the competition, adding that it was not about winning but involving them.

He said players would understand the importance of the competition and get motivated. The winning team will walk away with a trophy.

The chairperson of the centre, Kitso Dlamini said the tournament would also give the sponsor a feed-back about their achievements of the centre. He also said community coaches would have an opportunity to identify their key areas which they could work on.

“The tournament is also a marketing strategy that could assist us to attract more sponsors to appreciate our goal”, he said.

The managing director of Phoenix Bakery, Mr Lefty Kalafatis said they decided to sponsor the festival because the centre is doing a good job in the development of the community.

He pleaded with other business communities to take the responsibility and turn sports into an industry that could develop and employ young people to earn a living.

He said they should ensure that sport was developed as it was a powerful tool for mobilisation adding that young people could desist from involvement in criminal activities and other social ills if they engage in sports. ENDS