15 Oct 2017

Malebo Raditladi has taken over the Botswana Netball Association (BONA) presidency baton from Tebogo Lebotse-Sebego during the annual general meeting in Palapye over the weekend.

Raditladi, the former BONA vice president, contested the presidency with Dr Kebatenne Hulela and Onkemetse Mpudi and they garnered seven votes against Hulela and Mpudi’s six and two votes respectively.

Seipei Gaelesiwe and Theresa Hirschfeld who were unopposed assumed the positions of vice president and events and public relations officer respectively.

Masego Serumola beat Regent Pitso to the position of sport development officer garnering nine votes against Pitso’s six.

Raditladi thanked all those who voted for her and the entire National Executive Committee.

She called for unity and team work amongst BONA affiliates, urging them to work together as a team to take netball to greater heights.

She thanked Lebotse-Sebego for working tirelessly to improve the standard of netball in the country.

She vowed to continue working closely with Lebotse-Sebego and ask for her guidance whenever the need arose.

For her part, Lebotse-Sebego expressed gratitude to her executive committee for their support and commitment during her tenure as president.

She said although it was not an easy road, netball made an impact in the sport arena.

She noted that netball was about volunteerism and hard work, hence the need to work hard to see the results.

Lebotse-Sebego said last year the association hosted a successful BONA Superstars Tournament which helped keep the players active.

She said in the absence of a league sponsor, most of the teams became dormant and that only a few continued training, resulting in some players not training as they should be.

She said the tournament presented an opportunity for players with the potential to be active and be able to feed the national team.

Amongst her achievement was seeing six netball players being awarded the Zebras elite scholarship.

The BNSC official Steve Botlhasitse thanked Tebogo-Lebotse for the job well done and also welcomed the new BONA president and her team.

He thanked Lebotse-Sebego for leading BONA and taking netball to greater heights.

“If it wasn’t for you we would not have tasted the netball under 21 World Cup.”

He urged the new BONA committee to work hard and dedicate their time and resources to BONA activities. Ends