Hon. Minister opens 2019 IDM Inter Campus Games

26 March 2019

The Honourable Minister of Sports, Culture and Youth Affairs Harries Bulunga today officially opened the 2019 Institute of Development Management (IDM) Inter Campus games.

Bulunga was represented by the Director of Sports in the Ministry Lucky Sihlongonyane at the event held at the IDM Campus in Matsapha. The event began with a walk led by His Majesty’s Correctional Services Band from Mahhala to the campus.

The participating teams from Eswatini, Lesotho and Botswana then gathered for the opening ceremony at the campus where Bulunga, through the Director of Sports, lauded IDM Management for initiating the tournament.

"The Inter Campus games have been designed to afford a platform for our students in our three countries, Botswana, Lesotho and Eswatini, to engage in a more relaxed and social manner beyond the classroom environment, fostering diversity as well as partnership among our three countries. These games go beyond the realms of sport as they allow for the different cultures and traditions to be mixed and new connections to be made," he said.

The Honourable Minister added that the games offered SADC one way of achieving His Majesty’s Vision of developing sport in the SADC region.

"Earlier this month, His Majesty King Mswati III spoke passionately about the need for sport to develop in the SADC region and these games offer us one window to achieve that. I wish to underline how proud we are to continue to witness collaborations between our three countries, relationships that have stood the test of time," he added.

Bulunga then urged the teams to compete fairly until the closing of the games on Thursday. The opening ceremony was also attended by IDM Regional Director Richard Malikongwa as well as Eswatini Acting Country Director Rose Choto.

The three nations will compete in various disciplines including athletics, football and basketball spread across numerous venues including the University of Eswatini and VOCTIM.