04 Mar 2014

The Minister of Youth, Sport and Culture, Mr Shaw Kgathi says he is aware that only VIP seats and the retractable entrance tunnel at Lobatse Sports Complex bear Botswana blue whilst the rest of the seats are orange, yellow, green and grey.

Mr Kgathi said the latter colours were used deliberately by designers at the Ministry of Infrastructure, Science and Technology in order to honour companies which have been supporting football in the country such as Orange Botswana, Mascom Wireless and be Mobile.

He said he was also aware that the orange, yellow, green and grey colours used may be similar to the national colours of other countries such as Togo and Ethiopia.

Furthermore, the minister said he had no immediate plans of changing the colours because that exercise would come at a huge cost, adding that there were more than 19 000 seats with such colours.

He stated that he could only consider changing them after the expiry of the 10 year warranty, when seats would be due for replacement. “Currently, they are in fourth year,” he said.

The MP for Kgalagadi North, Mr Phillip Khwae had asked the minister if he was aware that the Lobatse Sports Complex chairs did not promote the Botswana local brand and that during the Botswana national team game against Togo and Ethiopia, the branding colours were more skewed towards the visiting teams than the national team.

He also wanted to know if there were any plans to correct this. ENDS