03 Apr 2017

Lefika Athletics Club chairperson Thari Mooketsi is the new Botswana Athletics Association president. He will be assisted by Kenneth Kikwe of Orapa Athletics Club.

The two were both unopposed during the elections conducted on Saturday in Gaborone.

For the secretary general position,   Raymond Phale of Francistown Athletics Club beat   Kelebogile Mogapi of Serowe Athletics Club 21-2.

Ipolokeng Ramatshaba of Mmadinare Athletics Club was voted by 19 delegates and Lulu Basinyi of Palapye Athletics Club only garnered four votes for the public relations officer position.

The special general assembly was held only to fill vacant posts after resignation of Moses Bantsi, Roland Masalila, Legojane Kebaitse and Charles Keikotlhae in February.

And as per BAA new constitution, which the affiliated agreed to use, article 25.2.6 says in the event that four elective positions simultaneously fall vacant, two of which shall be the president and vice president, the remaining member holding an elective position shall act as president.

The article further stipulates that the acting member in that capacity shall call a special general meeting of the association within 21 days from the day the positions fell vacant, at which elections shall be held to fill up the vacancies.

Immediately after ascending to the seat, Mooketsi pleaded with the affiliates to work as a team to take the code to greater heights.

Furthermore, he said he was aware that there was a constitution crisis, therefore one of the mandate would be to ensure that all affiliates were consulted to rectify what was left behind in filling the constitution gap.

“Let me promise that this committee is going to deliver, and if there is any committee member who is going to take the opposite direction I will call you as affiliates to inform you so that you map the way forward.

We have our strategic plan and it is very clear as to what we want to achieve as BAA,” he said.

Meanwhile BAA vice president said in an interview that his role was very technical therefore reviving the technical structures would be very important.

He said they would have to involve all the structures fully in the running of the association, given that BAA would not be complete without the involvement of Botswana Integrated Sport Association, Botswana Primary School Sports Association and Botswana Tertiary Students Sports Association.

“We also need to fully engage both Botswana National Sports Commission and Botswana National Olympic Committee in our technical training and in our development plan as they are the funders,” he said.

He said it was also imperative that BAA came up with a clear development plan that would also engage schools given that IAAF had a special fund for coaches and child athletics therefore and as an association there was need to utilise those programmes.

“Again we have to use the programmers at high performance centres of IAAF by sending our seniors athletes for short and long term development,” he said. ENDS