Letlhakane Stadium At Tender Stage
Koketso Kgoboge | Monday August 19, 2019 13:58
Mchive was speaking at the unveiling of a historic half-a-million Boteti Division 1 sponsorship. Lucara is the first organisation to sponsor a second tier league to hundreds of thousands.
The mine had proposed to construct a Sports Complex for Letlhakane village as a way of giving back to the community it operates in. The stadium is part of the area of excellence project that is inclusive of a centre of learning. The centre of learning will be built side by side with the stadium.
While the diamond mine expects to complete the stadium in three years, the centre of learning would be built in three phases. The first phase will be a pre-school followed by a primary school and a secondary school in the final phase.
Mchive revealed that the Sports Complex would comprise a football pitch with artificial turf, international standard netball and tennis courts amongst others and an IAAF standard track.
“The idea is to set up an area of excellence here (Letlhakane) where we will produce sportsmen and women that would represent the nation at international competitions,” he said.
“We wish to develop resilient communities so that in future when mines are longer operational they could sustain themselves.”
The general manager was cagey to reveal the budget of the project. “We have a budget but I can’t reveal it since we will be going for tender in two weeks’ time. It is not going to come cheap because it’s a project of international standards,” he said in an interview during the unveiling of the Boteti sponsorship.
The village Kgosi, Barontshi Kegapetswe said the project was long overdue since it had been mentioned by different organisations for a long time but it never took off. He said after the support the community had benefitted from Lucara in its short existence in the village, they are hopeful the project would finally come to light.
“We knew diamonds were mined here and taken to Gaborone, but since Lucara started mining here, they have made traceable contributions in developing our communities in Boteti. We have great expectations from them and we trust that we will finally have the stadium that we have been promised for a long time,” Kegapetswe said. Kgosi Kegapetswe called on all the stakeholders to assist Lucara and see that the expected project comes to life.
“It is through such projects that can contribute to attracting our youth to positive lifestyles. I encourage everyone to help Lucara achieve this mandate for the community of Boteti and the nation at large.”