23 Feb 2016

Former volleyball president, Tsoseletso Magang has urged women to participate in decision making platforms that define their life.

Speaking at Women and Sport Botswana (WASBO) “it’s on us” campaign in Gaborone on Saturday, she said many initiatives have been attempted and proposed under many strategies to ensure  that women have equal access and full participation in power structures and decision making.

She said some strategies have discussed increasing women participation in decision making and leadership, and that one of the strategies was to identify barriers that hold women back in finding solutions.

Magang further said negative attitudes of some men towards  women in most instances make women feel intimidated. “When I stood for the Botswana National Olympic Committee vice president, I was de-campaigned and some people were saying I should start as an additional member,” she said.

Private Tertiary Institution Association (PTIA) president, Keorapetse Setlhare said most sport associations in Botswana were doing enough to protect women in sport against sexual harassment.

He said he was of the view that there were no properly defined policies in place, hence sexual discrimination still occurs leaving those victimised to turn to associations and institutions for remedy.

Setlhare said it was prudent that associations need to be reviewed to better explain the concept of sexual harassment in sport.

Furthermore, he said associations need to hold that even unintentional discrimination constitutes sexual harassment.

“An example of such an inadequacy is when unintentional discrimination occurs in the coach-athlete relationship, common examples of unintentional discrimination are when a coach positions a player to show her a correct stance or when an athlete submits to a massage,” he said.

He said while such conduct may appear appropriate in the sports context, an athlete may feel demeaned if it is excessive physical contact. Ends