24 Feb 2019

The new Botswana Tertiary Student Sports Association (BOTESSA) president, Keorapetse Setlhare has promised to take the association to greater heights and attract more sponsors.

In an interview after he was endorsed as BOTESSA president on February  22, Setlhare said he planned to introduce more sport codes in BOTESSA competitions because the association supplied top leagues. He said the introduction of more codes would give national teams pool of credible athletes.

Additionally, Setlhare said BOTESSA would capacitate their coaches by running coaching clinic and ultimately introduce codes like boxing.

“We should also introduce more activities in our calendar of events and currently we are introducing the marathon, which would be held in June this year,” he said.

Furthermore, Setlhare said they would work with Botswana Integrated Sports Association (BISA) to identify talent and ensure that all the athletes who do not do well in the Botswana General Certificate for Secondary Education examination were absorbed in different tertiary institutions and enroll in courses related their sport codes.

On other issues, Setlhare said he was aware of existing factions within the association saying that his priority was to unite both factions.  He promised to work with all the former committee members in an effort to transform BOTESSA to a professional association.

The position of BOTESSA president fell vacant after Herbert Letsebe resigned due to ill health.

Setlhare and Jomo Moalosi’s names were submitted but the latter was vetted out by the election board because it was alleged that Moalosi did not hand over some of BOTESSA properties after he served as the secretary general.

However, Moalosi has since taken the matter to the national appeals board, which was yet to deliberate of the issue. ENDS