31 May 2015

Botswana Boxing Association (BoBA) affiliates have expressed worry over the association’s use of funds.

According to the BoBA financial report, the association has already consumed more than half of the annual grant from the Botswana National Sports Council (BNSC) since the beginning of the year.

The association was allocated P1 million grant from BNSC for the year 2015 but the outstanding balance stood at P374 900 with P625 000 having been spent on administration and tournaments.

Commenting on the treasurer’s report at the association’s annual general meeting (AGM) on Saturday (May 30), affiliates demanded that the executive committee should present a budget plan for the grant not figures depicting how the money was spent.

The committee treasurer, Frank Chigutshi had presented a model showing all the expenditures incurred from January 2015 leaving out a plan fully illustrating what funds were budgeted for.

Chigutshi said drawing up a budget was a challenge in that the committee sometimes asked for emergency funding adding that boxing had a lot of activities.

Affiliates unanimously blamed the association for sending over ten athletes to the just ended Zone 4 championships in South Africa stating that such regional competitions had never been a priority.

Tsholofelo Boxing club’s France Mabiletsa said in a year where there were continental competitions like All Africa Games (AAG), the association should spend funds on preparing athletes for such meets instead of focusing on regional tournaments.

Mabiletsa said that was a preceding year to the Olympics Games which required BoBA to select the best crop of athletes and invest on them ahead of the games so that they represented the country with excellence.

Affiliates further questioned why BoBA had to settle a P42 000 outstanding bill at Oasis Motel which was owed by a Mozambican team. They also complained about funds paid towards athletes’ accommodation during the Zone 4 training camp suggesting that BoBA should look for cheaper accommodation next time in order to save costs.

Responding to the questions, BoBA president, Thato Patlakwe agreed that in future they would engage affiliates to draw up a budget and allow suggestions. Patlakwe explained that they had to settle the Mozambique bill because they were the Africa Cup hosts hence the hotel lawyers had furnished BoBA with a lawsuit.

He further told affiliates that the Olympic qualifiers were funded by BNOC while they had communicated with BNSC to fund AAG preparations.

Nevertheless, he thanked clubs for their suggestions saying “we welcome your constructive criticism because it keeps us engaged and from here we try to save money so that our end of year activities do not suffer.”

In other issues, Patlakwe said they were working towards securing a suitable person to replace the Sport Development Officer and former coach Khumiso Ikgopoleng. He said they were also in a bilateral agreement with South African boxing body geared towards working relations and sharing skills and ideas.

Also, he said they were in talks with different companies for the championship sponsorship following the culmination of their partnership with Keone Mooka Mageu last year. Ends