12 Mar 2025

At least 14 men and women Netball teams have confirmed their participation in the upcoming Jwaneng Netball Extravanganza Tournament scheduled for March 21-23.
A first of its kind, the tournament is geared towards resuscitating and growing netball in Botswana, as well as enhancing the country’s participation in international tournaments.
Sebataladi Ramoitoi, the chairperson of Jwaneng Netball Club, explained in an interview: “We have realised that netball has lost its popularity and the main objective of this tournament is to resuscitate its position and attract both boys and girls to this sporting code. We also want to increase Botswana’s prospects in global tournaments through active and regular participation.”
As the host, the Jwaneng Netball Club is the Lucara Botswana Netball League 2023/24 champions as well as the Botswana Netball Association (BONA) Spring 2024 Netball Tournament.
In addition to the local teams, he said, they extended an invitation to netball bodies in Zimbabwe and South Africa, to make it more competitive and create an interactive platform for participants.
Ramoitoi said the tournament was sponsored by Jwaneng Mine to align with the company’s dream of transforming Jwaneng into a sporting hub as part of the sustainability strategies beyond diamond mining.
He appreciated the contribution of other stakeholders in the business community whose collective effort would ensure a successful tournament.
The intention was to make this an annual event, to promote physical fitness through netball, while at the same appreciating the body coordination and mental fitness that comes with the sport.
 He noted that preparation plans for the tournament were at an advanced stage and the games would be played back to back at two courts.
Even though he was not in a position to quantify the overall sponsorship of the event, he explained that for each category of the male and female teams, the champion would walk away with P10 000, followed by P7500 and P5000 for silver and bronze respectively.
Individual awards would attract P1000 each, with the Overall Best Player getting P1500. ENDS