24 Jun 2020

Lobito Ncube is the latest arrival into Botswana Football Association (BFA) mix.

Her signal to stand for a BFA position has given women in sport a ray of hope.

Five women: Kesego Okie, Theresa Hirschfield, Tsoseletso Magang, Joy Setshedi and Itsholeng Disang, had initially put themselves forward as possible women candidates.

However, Ncube threw her name in the hat at the last minute as an independent candidate for the women representative post,  thus increasing the number of women contestants to six.

 All candidates would have to await the electoral board’s vetting process.

Africa Sports Ventures Group’s director of media and communications, Ntebogang Sebetlela, said in an interview that in recent years, there was a higher number of women in the sports fraternity.

“Yes, it is encouraging to see women do that, but objectively then, in this scenario of the imminent BFA elections, I found myself wondering. Yes, we have numbers, but does this mean, women are showing interest in standing for positions? Very hard to tell,” she said.

Sebetlela expressed concern that women would be standing against each other for lower positions.

She said most of them would be standing for women football representative post in the BFA national executive committee.

“According to me, this is by no means a show of intent, a show of intent and interest would be women standing for the top positions,” she said.

Furthermore, she had been monitoring the numbers with interest, adding that it was a welcome development.

Sebetlela, however, said it was also clear that locally, football was still a patriarchal sport, adding that women in sport needed to come together with a common goal of changing the playing field.

“They need to support, encourage and unite. Stereotypes and beliefs affect the perceived capacity of women to perform or ascend to higher positions in sports,” she said. ENDS