08 Dec 2024

The ongoing Confederation of Africa Zone VI Senior Club Volleyball Championship has been hailed as not just a sporting event, but a powerful platform toward regional integration.

“This is not just a sporting event, it is a platform for fostering strong regional integration and promotion of good relations between our countries. It is a platform that can be used to build communities that can co-exist and interact or collaborate in various undertakings beyond sport,” said Minister of Sports and Arts, Jacob Kelebeng.

Giving a keynote address at the official opening of the Zone VI volleyball Senior Club Championship games in Gaborone on Friday, Kelebeng said the purpose for the games was to grow popularity of the sport of volleyball in Botswana and in the SADC region.

“This can only be achieved through a significant effort by all involved to achieve such excellence. Excellence as you are aware is a group effort, and not an individual effort,” he said.

Kelebeng said the games brought together talent from the nine countries of the SADC region, attracting 50 of the best teams from Botswana, Lesotho, eSwatini, South Africa, Mozambique, Malawi, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

The games also brought together more than 1 000 athletes, officials and volunteers from the region. 

He said the games were a qualifier stage for Senior Africa Club Championships as the winning female and male teams would represent Zone VI at those games. 

He said the championship would give athletes international games exposure and experience. 

Kelebeng further said the games presented individual member states a platform to identify talent and nurture it.

“I commend the Zone VI leadership of Khalid Cassam in ensuring that these games are hosted annually. Let me hasten to congratulate Botswana on breaking the record of hosting the largest number of teams at any volleyball event in the continent,” he said.

Kelebeng said by hosting the games, Botswana Volleyball Federation would contribute immensely to building local capacity in management and delivery of international events. 

The minister said the successful hosting of the games was through the determination and teamwork of the Local Organising Committee (LOC). 

Considering the challenge of limited resources, Kelebeng said the LOC persevered to deliver the games. 

“We are very excited to host these games and we will do everything in our power to make them a success. The success of these games plays a significant economic role as it creates jobs and generates business activity for the hosting country,” he said.

He further urged participants at the games to adhere to high levels of professionalism, show respect to one another, make new friends and openly speak against gender based violence.

Kelebeng also challenged sport leaders to deliver a return on the investment made in the sport sector by various investors, particularly government.

He said the economic, social and health outcomes of sport programmes and events needed to be monitored and periodically evaluated to ensure they were relevant to communities.

“Demonstration of the existence of these outcomes as a result of our interventions will result in increased and continued investment in sport. We should present a solid case for investment in sport,” he said.

The minister encouraged regional leadership to endeavour to use sport as a tool for community development and transform the lives of our people. 

He said sport had great social significance, by being the glue that bonds communities together.

“It is an activity that unites people regardless of their social, political, religious or cultural background. Sport and physical activity contribute directly to physical and mental health and to combat non-communicable diseases,” he said.

He further appealed for increased investment in platforms that offered athletes to showcase their well-practiced and crafted skills, and also reap the vast benefits associated with playing sport like mental strength, teamwork and building confidence among others.

He said investing in grassroots development of athletes was critical for ensuring that there was continuity in the production of elite athletes. “Your contribution to sport at this level demonstrates commitment as the risks associated with your investment may be high, but the returns are right here in front of us, in the form of over 1 000 athletes, officials and volunteers from the region brought together by your efforts,” he said. Ends