Bona Life tee-off Maruapula Loxion Golf journey
Calistus Kolantsho | Friday December 12, 2025 06:00
The life insurer has launched a programme targeted towards introducing young people in Maruapula, Gaborone to golf at an early stage.
During the first edition, November 2024–2025, Bona Life pumped P150,000 into the initiative and this year, covering the period November 2025–2026, the company has injected another P150,000.
On Thursday, at FNB Blue Tree World of Golf, the insurance outfit launched the Maruapula Loxion Golf Programme, a partnership with Excel Golf Academy that will give about 100 children free entry into golf arena.
Speaking at the ceremony, Bona Life CEO Phatsimo Keakabetse said the programme is a long-term investment in youth development, not a branding exercise.
She applauded the support of the parents, noting that small acts, including transportation of children to practice, make the programme possible.
Keakabetse, a recently converted golfer, said golf is a character workshop in disguise.
“I am a fairly new golfer, although I use ‘new’ loosely, but what I have learnt is that golf is more than a sport,” she said.
“It builds discipline, it builds character, it is a classroom on its own. When you want to know a person, play around them.”
Keakabetse added that golf has its own moral landscape, a place without referees, where honesty is self-enforced.
She said in golf, a player learns to be their own referee, and those are values that should be embedded in children.
The programme was born from a simple observation that Maruapula Location can see the fairways of the FNB Blue Tree Golf Course from their homes, yet rarely get to access them.
Excell Golf Academy director and coach, Mpho Kelosiwang, said the barrier was never the interest, only access.
“Golf is traditionally perceived as a sport for the rich. I do not think any of us does not want to be rich, but accessibility for the middle class has always been a problem.
“As an academy, we realised the disconnect, children living steps from a golf course but with no practical path into the game,” he said.
Kelosiwang said last year they commenced the programme, intending to have 100 children playing, and so far, only three come every Sunday.
The seasoned coach, who has produced the youngest Botswana Ladies Golf Open Champion, Tuduetso Onyadile, said a small start is strategic.
Children in the programme train alongside the academy juniors, a love designed to normalise the sport rather than isolate participants. The majority of the participants are children aged under 10 years. “The next phase will expand into academic tutoring, turning the initiative into a holistic development space,” Kelosiwang said.