PHK welcomes Team Botswana

| Thursday August 23, 2012 00:00

It is my delightful and great pleasure, coupled with a sense of nostalgia to be part of this exciting and auspicious occasion to welcome home Team Botswana from the Games of the 30th Olympiad in London. Having participated in sports myself, this ceremony brings fond memories of my time in St Joseph's College where I set a record in high jump. I played for Kgale XI and the equivalent of a national Soccer Team. Words cannot sufficiently describe how excited I am this evening for this country's feat! Botswana is on the map of the sporting fraternity!Today, I stand tall to welcome Team Botswana following their historic and impressive performance at the 2012 London Olympics games.

The medal, which was won by Nigel Amos in the men's 800m is indeed worth celebrating. Botswana's flag was hoisted for the first time ever in our history together with flags of other countries. The medals ceremony symbolized our ceremonial arrival into the world of competitive sport. I believe our country has potential and is indeed ready to be counted amongst the world's best in sport. This is true because in the 800m race, seven out of the nine athletes ran their Personal Best times, which shows how competitive we were!As we celebrate the achievement on account of teamwork and collaboration among all the stakeholders involved, I pay special tribute to the Amos' family for bringing Nigel up to be a respectful and fine young man he is today. If he was not respectful to his teachers and coaches, he would not have recorded the significant milestone in Botswana sport history that we are celebrating today, and we will no doubt continue to celebrate in future.

I hope as he basks in the aura of success, Nigel would forever be thankful to the teachers he interacted with from primary through to secondary schools. Those who looked after him significantly shaped his behavioural pattern and perspective about life. Nigel's teachers should therefore feel proud because they have produced a fine product. In this regard, I commend Botswana Primary Schools Sports Association (BOPSSA) and Botswana Integrated Sports Association (BISA) for their contribution towards his development. I should include the efforts, guidance, mentoring and coaching by the Botswana Athletics Association (BAA) for having produced in Nigel a pearl of an international athlet through his participation in various regional, continental and international competitions.The achievement by Nigel Amos, young as he is, vindicates the decision of the Government through the Ministry of Youth, Sport and Culture to work with the Ministry of Education and Skills Development to establish Centres of Sport Excellence in designated Secondary Schools. The centres will ensure development of teacher/coaches as well as athletes without causing major disruptions to academic programmes as most development and training will be taking place in the school environment.

I wish to urge all critical stakeholders to support the Centres of Sport Excellence to ensure the success of this noble initiative through improvement of both facilities and training programmes available at the designated centres. I have therefore no doubt that in the next five years or so, our country will be having an increased number of athletes capable of taking over the baton from the likes of Amantle Montsho, Isaac Makwala, Oteng Oteng and Nigel Amos. We should therefore not fall into a similar trap of some countries to over-celebrate outstanding athletes and teams to a point of failing to develop future teams.

For its part, despite the budgetary constraints, Government has committed over P67 million this financial year towards sports development, administration and competitions. Director of ceremonies let me also hasten to pay tribute to other members of Team Botswana namely; Amantle Montsho, Oteng Oteng and Isaac Makwala for their outstanding performance as well. Bongwanaka you may not have brought medals home but your participation put Botswana on a world map. You have brought glory home. You have done your best. You all competed effectively and your representation was above reproach. I watched you as you did your best.

The Team Management and Coaches as well as the Local Organizing Committee (LOC) did a good job, making Botswana's participation a successful mission at the Olympic Games ever since we started competing in 1980. I am most humbled because, not only did we win our maiden Olympic medal, but we also made other notable achievements including best performance by a female Botswana athlete and setting a new world record for male Juniors in the 800m event.I note with appreciation that the Botswana National Olympic Committee (BNOC) and the Botswana National Sports Council (BNSC) worked hard for this noble achievement. I ardently hope that the BNOC and BNSC partnership will continue to subsist into the future for the benefit of athletes in this country. 

Sport is no longer just fun and games, but it has become a globalized multi-billion industry generating wealth and employment for various individuals, organizations and countries. We can only get our fair share of this cake through meticulous planning, hard-work and teamwork to serve the national interest in line with our National Vision 2016. The Vision seeks among other things, to build an Innovative and Productive Nation as well as a United and Proud Nation. These goals are achievable and we will indeed achieve them.I wish to place on record the Government's gratitude to all corporate sponsors who have supported not only the Olympic Team but many other sporting activities and programmes in this country. The Government is indeed most grateful for your support as public funding alone can never be enough to drive sport development in this country.

We therefore hope and pray that the economic environment will continue to improve to enable corporate entities to play an increasingly significant role in the development of sport at all levels in Botswana. It would be remiss of me not to register my appreciation for the role of volunteers who are the life-blood of the sporting system. These are volunteers from the grass-roots coaches and administrators, right up to the national level. Sport in Botswana would not be where it is now had it not been for your efforts. Your sacrifices of time and sometimes personal resources, to develop sport do not go unnoticed. This is patriotism at its best. 

Furthermore, I appeal to all key stakeholders to re-double their efforts in the training and development of coaches as they are the bed-rock of sporting excellence in any system. As much as we celebrate this year, let us start planning now for the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Scotland as well as the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.  Before I conclude, I wish to reiterate that sport is a catalyst for economic development and diversification. The sport sector can promote health and fitness as well as create jobs and wealth for Batswana. We need to create synergies with other sectors such as tourism to consolidate economic gains. Let me also thank my colleague the Minister of Youth, Sport and Culture Honourable Shaw Kgathi for providing a dynamic, strategic and visible leadership by ensuring that sport in Botswana reaches a high level and bringing glory to Botswana by making it a point that an Olympic Medal is brought to the country.

This is a commendable effort and it will be recorded as such in the annals of Botswana. Just recently, we were celebrating the first ever appearance of the Zebras at the 2012 Africa Cup of Nations. Many of our young people are also actively engaged in sport and recreation for physical fitness and health through their participation in the Constituency Arts and Sport Competitions. Keep up the good work dear colleague. To Team Botswana, I say welcome back home Bo-ngwanaka. On behalf of the Government and People of Botswana, I wish to categorically state that we are very proud of all of you and your efforts. You are the best that Botswana could ever have deployed for the 2012 London Olympic Games. We will continue to support you in every way possible. Well done and keep up the good work, you have indeed earned the love of the nation.In conclusion; We must shoulder and soldier on at all levels of national endeavour to promote sport to higher heights. There is neither room for self-defacing nor complacency. The national patriotic fervor must be raised and hoisted as high as the national flag.  I thank you all for your kind attention. Nelwang ke Pula!