15 Dec 2013

Twelve-year-old Tsholofelo Tsheto of Magapatona Primary School in Tutume was crowned deputy Southern Africa Tourism minister 2014.

Tsholofelo won the hearts of judges at the Regional Tourism Organisation of Southern Africa (RETOSA) school tourism essay competitions in Namibia recently. The standard seven pupil beat Kefiloe Motjetje of Lesotho and William Zenda of Zimbabwe in category one where primary schools students aged seven to 14 participated. Participants were from 15 SADC countries.

Their topic was why tourist attractions in my country were the best in the world. Mbako Muzila came second in category two, for secondary schools, behind Taloshili Hangula of Namibia who was crowned Southern Africa Junior Tourism minister. They discussed the topic:

“What my government should do to turn my country into the best green tourism destination in the world.” The 14-year-old student of Montsamaisa Junior Secondary School in Francistown was competing with Taloshili Hangula of Namibia and Iyanvwa Kankinda of Zambia.

The term of office for Tsheto, the deputy minister and Minister Hangula, will run until next youth in tourism essay competition and elections for the new office bearers for 2015. Tsheto won an I-Pad while Muzila won a laptop. The other four contestants got cellphones.

In an interview, Deputy Minister Tsheto said she learnt a lot of things in Namibia and that she was eager to teach Botswana youth about the tourism industry. She expressed happiness and said that she realised that Namibians took tourism seriously and that their country was clean. And, Junior Minister Muzila said: “As we were benchmarking, I learnt a lot of things from other children of different countries,” she said.

She said she would sensitise Batswana youth to view tourism the way Namibians regarded it.

Tsheto and Muzila went to the final after they emerged winners in the national competitions where they were crowned Botswana’s first junior tourism minister and deputy minister.  They said they are going to motivate other youth and urge them to participate in tourism development in Botswana and in the region.

The SADC region, under the auspices of the Regional Tourism Organisation of Southern Africa, has been facilitating youth essay competitions to select regional youth tourism ministers and deputy ministers. Participants were drawn from the 15 SADC countries.

However, five countries: Botswana, Lesotho, Zimbabwe, Zambia and Namibia, represented by six students made it to the finals. The finalists made oral presentations of their essays before a panel of judges under the theme: “Turning southern Africa into a competitive green tourism destination.” The competition was introduced to create tourism awareness among the youth.

Its main objectives are to facilitate the mainstreaming of tourism into education systems across the region; to help school children understand all the natural and cultural tourism resources, their value and contribution to the economy, the need to conserve them; and to create awareness on the importance of sustainable tourism. ENDS