25 Feb 2014

Palapye MP Moisaraela Goya officiated the constituency’s sport tournament for the national finals in Palapye at Kidiretswe Grounds. Goya mentioned that the sports tournament started in July 2008 and was initiated by President Lieutenant General Seretse Khama Ian Khama.

“The main objective is to promote mass participation and develop skills of the youth of Botswana,” He said other objectives of the initiative are to keep the unemployed youth busy whilst looking for jobs, to combat social ills such as drinking alcohol and theft, and contributing to economic empowerment of the youth.

To qualify as a participant in the tournament you have to be registered as a team, be aged 40 years and below and you should not be registered a student except for Botswana College of Distance and Open Learning (BOCODOL) students. The cycle duration for the tournament is four months from registration to the national finals games but with three cycles per year.

When the tournament first began in Mahalapye in 2008, there were 1582 teams with 28 476 participants and this year, there are 3 673 teams and 68 422 participants. This shows that more people have now developed a love for sports.  Looking at these figures, it shows that from 2008 to date, there has been a gradual increase in every cycle in both the number of teams and participants.

“Constituency sport tournament athletes and teams graduate in large numbers to join mainstream leagues,” said Goya. He gave an example of a former BMC player who is now with Township Rollers, Motsheletsi Sikele.

Only three codes are available for this tournament and they are football, netball and volleyball for both men and women.  ENDS