15 Feb 2022

The senior women football team has received P300 000 from Lucara Botswana Diamond Corporation ahead of a crucial Africa Women’s Cup of Nations (AWCON) qualifier against Zimbabwe on Friday.

From the sponsorship, each player will receive P11 000 while officials will be rewarded with P5 000 each.

Speaking at the sponsorship launch in Gaborone on Monday, Minister of Youth Empowerment, Sport and Culture Development, Tumiso Rakgare, applauded Lucara Botswana for motivating the team.

He said the coming encounter was important to both players and Batswana given that should the team emerge victorious, it would make it to the Women Cup of Nations for the first time.

The minister said the team had been horning skills over the last few weeks, adding ‘there can never be a better time than now to offer them incentives to go out there and ably represent Botswana.’

Rakgare said Lucara Botswana contribution would bridge the gap between men and women sport.

In addition to providing financial and other forms of support to the team, he said government continued to encourage the private sector to lend a helping hand to sport.

“Let me once again call on the private sector to emulate what Lucara Botswana has done. I will also like to continue encouraging all to take advantage of the 15 per cent in tax rebates for supporting sport as per the Income Tax Act,” he said.

Lucara Botswana managing director, Naseem Lahri, said her company pride itself in contributing towards building a greater and self-sufficient Botswana.

“We subscribe to 10 UN Sustainable Development Goals, and these essentially guide the partnerships and projects that we venture into. These goals allow us to leave a lasting impact not only within the communities we operate in but in Botswana as a whole,” she said.

The contribution, she said, was their way of showing support to The Mares as they take part in the AWCON qualifier.

The return leg will be played on February 23 and winner of the two legged encounter will qualify for the Africa’s show piece.  ENDS