29 Mar 2023

Botswana Tourism Organisation (BTO) and Jwaneng leadership have moved swiftly to ensure that all is in place to stage a successful Toyota 1 000km Desert Race.

The race returns to Botswana this year and will be held in Jwaneng June 23-25 after the last two editions were held in Upington, South Africa.

Speaking at the race briefing recently, Jwaneng mayor, Olga Ditsie, called for collective efforts which she said remained central in delivering a successful, safe and fun-packed event.

Ditsie thanked BTO for engaging the southern region leadership, saying ‘Batswana believe in consultations because they bear positive results. As a region, ours is a big task to ensure that we host an improved event from the previous one. It is in our interest for the race to be a success so that we continue hosting it.’

However, Ditsie expressed concern about illegal dumping of waste in and around the town.

Therefore, she implored stakeholders to address the challenge.

For her part, BTO executive manager responsible for marketing, Keitumetse Setlang, said the event would be held in Jwaneng for three consecutive years. She explained that the return to the mining town followed realisation that most of the competitors and spectators preferred the area over Selebi Phikwe.

“Big trees in Selebi Phikwe posed risk to competitors and compromised their safety. Others have also highlighted that Phikwe is far as most of the competitors are from South Africa,” she said.

On one hand, Setlang said a good number of countries wanted to host the desert race, hence the need for Botswana to deliver an exceptional one.

As such, she urged the region’s leadership to encourage residents to be on their best behaviour, saying “if everything goes well here, maybe the organisers would not have any reason to move the race to a different country. We will also use experiences from the past event to ensure that we stage a successful race.”

She also indicated that BTO, apart from the entertainment aspect, was part of the event because it had the capacity to boost the country’s economy.

“Businesses from different sectors experience increased sales during the event, hence significantly contributing to the economy,” she said.

She further urged the business community to be prepare for the three-day event so they can fully benefit from it and also advised the residents to come up with ideas that would boost tourism in the area beyond the desert race.

Also, she encouraged all to leave waste in designated places, saying “failure to do so would bring diseases and also affect the beef industry’.

BTO marketing manager responsible for products and events, Thabang Segaetsho said route development was at an advanced stage and the police had already been informed about the event. Kgosi Duncan Marumoloa of Jwaneng also thanked BTO for engaging the region’s leadership in preparation for the race.

He urged the tourism organisation to sensitise Jwaneng residents and surrounding areas about the event so that they too would be prepared to benefit from it.  ENDS