Re Ba Bona Ha gains momentum
The Re Ba Bona Ha programme is back in action after two years lay-off due to the outbreak of COVID-19. The programme held its first festival that involved three sporting codes at Ba Isago University grounds over the weekend.
Re Ba Bona Ha is a grassroots sports development project of the Botswana National Sport Commission (BNSC), which targets children of years five to 15 in different sporting disciplines.
The weekend activities were basketball, judo and football. Speaking to Sport Monitor, BNSC sport development manager-technical, Peaceful Seleka said the festival was an indication of return to play.
“We wanted to give kids hope that sport still exists despite COVID-19. Some of these players have lost a lot of time during the lay-off. They could have broke into Under 16 and 17 teams. They are now lagging behind,” he said.
Seleka also said they had three sporting codes that have Re Ba Bona Ha centres in Gaborone. He said they do not restrict kids to a single code because they are still young as they are allowed to experience other codes.
Seleka said school sport remains a challenge for sport development.
“School sport is the base for sport development in this country. Without it, most programmes are hit hard. It is difficult for kids to be involved in sport as much as we want. Re Ba Bona Ha is also affected. When we have school sport, there is a lot of participation and the programme grows,” he said. Seleka further said he was impressed by the attendance at Ba Isago but they had restricted the numbers to 50 kids per code. He said the next step is to make sure that all centres are active.
Seleka said each code has its own activities that they are doing.
Judo secretary-general, Oarabile Lechile said the festival gave kids an opportunity to interact with others and play sport that they never played before.
“The experience has been huge for them. Those who play judo also took off their attire to play football and basketball. Our centre started in 2016. We have two female coaches and the programme has been a success. We have some success from the programme because it is contributing to the entire Botswana Judo Federation (BJF),” he said.
The kids learnt a few judo ground techniques, which are part of the grappling techniques group, and they include holddown techniques and joint locks. As the name implies, these techniques are performed on the ground, and are used to hold an opponent down and disable
his movement.