�We will take care of you�
Ian Khama | Friday May 23, 2014 13:03
For some years, we desired to host a sporting event to showcase our home-grown talent, in our own country. When the opportunity arose we submitted our bid for the 2nd African Youth Games. On March 12th, 2013, the announcement was made by the Association of National Olympic Committees of Africa (ANOCA) that we have been successful.
We started in earnest to prepare for the Games, with different committees given the full mandate to effectively play their role in ensuring the Games will be smooth.
You may recall that the African Youth Games were hosted for the first time in 2010 by Morocco. I must congratulate Morocco for a job well done in that year.
I have also been informed that when our Moroccan friends hosted the games, there were 16 sports codes and about 1,000 athletes participating from 41 African countries. At these second games, Botswana is hosting, there are 21 sports codes, and about 2,500 athletes representing all 54 African countries.
The Youth Games have brought together young people from the length and breadth of Africa under the theme “Uniting African Youth: Catalysing Botswana’s Economic Diversification”. Amidst the many challenges experienced across the African Continent sport has brought us all together.
In fact, Sport is one of the most cross-cutting of all development and peace tools. Through the 2nd African Youth Games, we are unifying the African Youth as well as showcasing their talent. The games also provide an important platform for our young people to get to know one another and to cultivate mutual respect for each other and for others in the world we live in.
My government fully subscribes to the Sport for Development and Peace International Working Group for Sport recommendations, which recognise the role that sport can play in promoting peace and development. The recommendation resonates well with Botswana’s National principles of democracy, development, Unity, Self-Reliance and Botho.
As a country, we believe that participation in sport promotes among other things, physical fitness and health, social harmony, nation building and self-reliance. We have through sport programmes meaningfully engaged young people.
Through these Games, we are presenting Botswana as a destination for Tourism and Investment. We are confident that our visitors will experience our hospitality, humility and above all the unique culture and heritage that we have.
I therefore wish to thank ANOCA and all African governments most profoundly for entrusting their youth to us for the almost two weeks of the Games. We will take care of them and ensure that they go back home safely.
To the athletes and their officials, this is your moment and you must celebrate the fact that your countries selected you to become their ambassadors in these games.
In addition, embrace the principle that winning or losing can be done with honour and dignity, knowing that one did their very best. After all, your participation in the games makes you all winners!
As much as we all intend to enjoy ourselves during this event, let us also remember another group of young people in our thoughts and prayers who are the many young girls who were kidnapped by terrorists in Nigeria. We hope that they will soon be reunited with their families and return to their education.
In conclusion, on behalf of the people of Botswana, I welcome all of you to Gaborone and Botswana. May you all have a wonderful stay in our country. It is now my honour and privilege to declare the 2nd African Youth Games officially open. I thank you for your attention. PULA!