24 Feb 2013

Before her, there were the likes of Dorcas Makgato-Malesu, Nomsa Mbere and Tshepo Mphoeng who were part of the leadership in the sports sector in the country.

Born 40 years ago in Bobonong in the Bobirwa Sub-district, Botswana Football Association (BFA) national executive committee (NEC) member, Basadi Akoonyatse is not your average woman. She was introduced to football by a friend.

As is the norm in sports, stereotypes prevail as some people question the appropriateness of having a female administrator. And she has long learnt how to deal with those negative beliefs.          

The mother of three, two girls and a boy, relates that as she stepped in to mark her presence, it was difficult as people did not understand, let along appreciate what she was talking about with regards to her profession of being a physiotherapist in sport.           

“While training as a physiotherapist in Ireland, I had an opportunity to work in a sport medicine centre and had an exposure of how important physiotherapy is in sports,” she says.

She was given the chance to volunteer her services and this eventually led to her studying for a  post graduate diploma in sports physiotherapy in Australia.

And she has never looked back since.

 “I see myself as an executive member of BFA and not as woman and my femininity does not drive me to compromise on my position, principles and values,” she explains.

She says  the decision to be in the BFA executive committee came as a result of thorough self examination and when the time came for her to make the move, she did not hesitate.               

Akoonyatse explains that football is a sport made of people one will never satisfy fully.

 “You can never please everybody, hence you have to learn to let things pass and not hold anything against anybody.”

She says to survive in the sport, she has to learn to extract something from everybody, even those who criticise her, making sure she does not make enemies.

Securing the BFA national executive committee membership is exciting despite the challenges that come with it.

Given her medical background, she says many people expect her to only focus on medical matters.

The football administrator says she decided to go beyond what her professional training moulded her to do and venture into helping in the administration of the sport that she loves it a lot.

She explains that her major areas of interest in sport as far as medical matters are concerned are seeing to the strengthening of the relationship between the health profession  and sports in general together with research entities.

Akoonyatse feels that such entities should collaborate bemoaning the current situation where, she says,  health professionals are not fully involved in sports .

“I believe the ministry of health must be represented in sports governing bodies, ” she stresses.

She has worked with different national teams in key events. These include  the Beijing 2008 Olympics, 2010 Youth Olympics Games, 2010 New Delhi Commonwealth Games and 2010 Morocco Youth African Championships.

Akoonyatse states that as long as the country relies on Good Samaritans during games , it will be long before the problem of career ending injuries can be put to an end.

She says there is need for the public and sports leadership to appreciate the importance of  health professionals to the development of  sports.

“At the moment, sport in Botswana is experiencing an illegal practice of people who are not qualified as health professionals coming in for money and other reasons.”

This, she says, is unfair to the athletes who are the ones experiencing career ending injuries. Akoonyatse says such challenges should be corrected by putting in place adequate measures to prevent and manage injuries that are career threatening.

Just like her predecessors in sports leadership, Akoonyatse wants to live a lasting  legacy.

She says she wants to be remembered as someone who has contributed positively to the development of the country’s sport  in all its dynamism and diversity. ENDS