Molweni, Good morning, Goeie more

Sports have always been regarded as a means of unifying all South Africans. We first saw how unifying sports can be in 1995 with the Rugby World Cup in South Africa, when Madiba walked out on the field in the Number 6 jersey of the Springbok Captain, François Pienaar.

The crowd at the stadium and most of the South Africans watching at other venues went wild as one nation.

It is fitting that what is usually the Bitou Easter Games is starting two weeks later than usual, today on Freedom Day.

Let us not forget while we enjoy this weekend's sporting activities that this year on Freedom Day, we celebrate South Africa's first democratic elections of 1994.

This was the moment that changed the path of South Africa's history. Bringing political freedom to all and filling the country with optimism and hope

But twenty-nine years on, it is clear that political freedom for all did not bring economic freedom for all. The hope of millions of people has been shattered by a lack of jobs. Lack of schools and poor medical services All of this is made much worse by the lack of a proper supply of electricity by Eskom.

This is currently a major contributor to the increased cost of living for all South Africans and is reducing the ability of businesses to create much-needed jobs.

Every day in South Africa brings more poverty when it should bring more prosperity.

This also impacts Bitou Municipality and the ability to bring services to all communities because of the vandalism to infrastructure that is experienced during load shedding.

We find that the pump stations are vandalized and borehole pumps are stolen, leaving communities without electricity when the power comes back on.

All the money that Bitou spends to repair this vandalized infrastructure to be able to supply water, sanitation, and electricity reduces the money available to provide more basic services.

I want to appeal to everyone to report anyone who vandalizes any property during loadshedding.

We have the same thing happening in Bitou. Our sporting facilities here are new; the field is only 3 years old, as are the netball courts, yet before today there was a lot that needed to be done to make the areas playable because of damage done by the people of this community.

These facilities are here for all Bossiesgif to use and enjoy; let us ensure that we keep them in a condition to be used and not allow some in our communities to destroy them.

We want to have more sports tournaments, such as this weekend, and to do so, we need to look after the fields.

So let us have fun this weekend and enjoy the sport in all our communities. Not every team can win, but we can make sure that sport is the winner.

I now declare these Bitou Games of 2023 to be open.

Circulated by Bitou Municipality Communications on behalf of Bitou Executive Mayor Dave Swart