18 Feb 2016

The Botswana Table Tennis Association (BTTA) annual general meeting in Gaborone on Wednesday (February 17) failed to adopt the association’s proposed code of conduct after delegates said it did not state all forms of misconduct and outline the entire disciplinary procedure.

The BTTA executive committee had drawn a code of conduct for adoption by the membership, which would then be used as an instrument to govern members of the executive committee, affiliate clubs and ordinary members.

But the New Horizon Table Tennis Club submitted a motion calling for the code of conduct not to be adopted and a task force instituted to draw up a proper code of conduct, stating all forms of misconduct, their appropriate sanctions and to outline the entire disciplinary procedure.

The delegates, who included five representatives of the 10 clubs affiliated to BTTA, agreed with the motion. Speaking during the general meeting which was held at the National Stadium, BTTA president, Lesego Maifala said he was happy with the progress made by his code since he assumed office in 2014.

He said they have put in place a set of milestones after assuming office which indicated where they wanted to drive the association. The milestones, he said, included the introduction of table tennis to primary schools, increasing their presence in remote areas and forming new clubs as well as securing more sponsorships.

“I am happy to report that we have achieved about 90 per cent of these milestones, representing an impressive turn of events. As a result we view the past year as a root and branch reform of most of the structures of our association. The year was therefore just the beginning of good things to come,” Maifala stated.

He said the biggest breakthrough was securing sponsorship for the association’s four-year development plan. In July 2015, the association announced that Master Timbers Botswana has agreed to sponsor the development of its juniors with P150 000.

“The programme has started to be rolled out and it will be included in our 2016 programme of activities. We are in talks with international coaches and players to be part of this programme,” he said.

Maifala also said he was happy that the association has managed to register four new affiliate clubs, bringing to 10 the number of affiliated clubs. Ends