North West Premier Lazarus Mokgosi is hopeful that the Lobelo la Dipitsi Traditional Horse Racing will become one of the biggest racing events in the country.
Mokgosi was speaking to YouFM during the inaugural event held at the Bloomtech Lodge in Vryburg.
‘It’s an annual event that was inaugurated today, and we believe that this is going to grow, and be an event that we host every year.
It’s a collaboration between the Gambling Board and the Department of Economic Development, Environment, Conservation and Tourism (DEDECT).
We want to transform this sector, but most importantly to market the province, to be an area of destination, to show all the economic, tourism sites and attractions that we have.
It is also to revive the economy of the province,” said Mokgosi.
The race attracted people from Northern Cape, Free State and Gauteng, including neighbours, Botswana, Lesotho and Namibia.
According to Mokgosi, the event featured a fusion of cultural activities, exhibitions, and small, medium, and micro enterprises (SMMEs)
“We have SMMEs who are participating, contributing, and are also exposed to the sector.
There are exhibitors here, who are mostly showcasing things that are related to the event.
We’ve got sponsors, 95% of the event is done by sponsors.
What we have decided to do is it that we’ve agreed on a collaboration of marketing this event, different activities where they’re their involved, could be in other provinces or international,” explained Mokgosi.
The Premier acknowledged that a lot must be done, as the sports is predominantly white and not transformed.
“It’s going to grow and big as time goes on, this a transformation of the sector, we have young people who are horse riders, mostly from rural areas.
It’s not a white men sport, we also want to prove that there are young black and African who can participate in the sport, we need to professionalise them.
But we believe as government that once we come into the space, our role is to make it easily accessible, and we would facilitate that,” remarked Mokgosi.
Race one was won by Maximus, owned by Lloyd, race two Rock My Soul, owned by Matsego Satang, race three won by Hlankanisa owned by Siphumile, race four by Roction, owned by Tsupa, while race six was won Bar One, owned by Phenyo.
