08 Mar 2016

The Serowe Sub zonal athletics organiser, Piet Moalose says  lack of resources strained the flow of games. He was speaking in an interview at the athletics competitions for the Serowe sub region.

The three day tournament saw 12 schools competing for their way to the zonal competitions scheduled for 30 March  to April and eventually the Botswana Integrated Sports Association (BISA) competitions.

Mr Moalose said the challenges they faced in the competition were amongst others lack of transport.  

This, he said forced athletes within Serowe to walk from their respective schools to the stadium. 

He added that at the beginning of the tournament, some students from the neighbouring villages such as Moiyabana could not make it on time to the competitions due to unavailability of transport. According to Moalose that disturbed the whole programme as they had to start in the absence of other competitors.

Moalose stated that the other key issue that affected the tournament was the fact that they had to pay for the usage of the stadium. 

He proposed that it was not supposed to be the case as the competitions were a part of the youth development programme.

He argued that the competitions did not generally address the needs of school going children but also the out of school youth.

Moalose maintained that out of school youth came for recreational purposes to the competitions. 

This he said kept them from juvenile delinquency and other social ills.  

He said the schools were often strained to pay the stadium fee because their out of school vote was empty. As a result, he said, they used Parents Teacher Association (PTA) funds to finance a competition of that kind. Moalose said the money used for stadium payments would have otherwise been used for transport and feeding purposes.   

Moalose added that the competitions were a part of the programme in the schools and therefore cannot be escaped. He therefore commended teachers who availed their sacrificial resources. ENDS