28 Aug 2014

Botswana Table Tennis Association (BTTA) president, Thebe Selema would not seek a fresh term as leader of the organisation.

BTTA holds its annual general meeting this evening (August 29) at Hotel Labama in Gaborone's Block 6. A new executive committee is set to be elected as the two-year mandate of the current committee ends today.

Selema, who ruled out chances of standing for the post of president again said he was leaving the BTTA a happy man after the table tennis body made a lot of progress during his two-year tenure.

“I had promised the table tennis fraternity that I would serve them for one term only, and I am not going to stand for elections again. However, I would not be lost to table tennis because I will continue to serve the sport at regional and continental level. I am content with what we have accomplished for the past two years,” said Selema.

He said the association under his leadership managed to develop more umpires and coaches. He explained that over the two years they had produced 11 coaches with Level One coaching certificates. Before he took over, Selema pointed, there were no coaches with such qualifications in the country.

He added that local table tennis players have managed to enjoy more success at international level, with Botswana winning one silver and one bronze medal at the Zone VI Championships, and qualifying for the 2014 Commonwealth Games.

Additionally, the association managed to send a team to the World Championships for the first time in its history. Selema also said they took youth development seriously and some of the youngsters were sent to play at a tournament in South Africa where they did well.

Selema further took pride from the fact that his committee last year made a landmark decision to empower its affiliates by giving clubs opportunity to host annual ranking tournaments. This resulted with clubs like Nhabe, Smash Maniacs, BDF, New Horizon and Dithubaruba establishing open tournaments.

“We have also managed to produce audited financial statement for 2012 and will produce the one for 2013 on Friday. This was not done for a long time before we took over,” said Selema.

Selema advised his successor to speed up the review of BTTA constitution and align it with that of Botswana National Sports Council. He also said the new committee should formulate a new strategic plan of the organisation.

Furthermore, he said the committee should look for long term sponsorships for table tennis events. Lelentle Mokhupuki, the BTTA publicity secretary, stated that the deadline for submission of nominations of potential office bearers was yesterday. She said clubs have been given opportunity to nominate their preferred candidates. ENDS