06 Aug 2020

Members of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) took turns to demand answers following the recent impasse ahead of the Botswana Football Association (BFA) National Executive Committee (NEC) electoral congress scheduled for Francistown later this month.

BFA presidential candidates; Ookeditse Malesu and Tebogo Sebego were disqualified by the association’s electoral board after being vetted out of the race to run for office.

The decision left incumbent Maclean Letshwiti unchallenged.

Later, the appeals committee overturned the decision after the duo appealed.

Appearing before the PAC on Wednesday morning, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Youth Empowerment, Sport and Culture Development (MYSC) Kago Ramokate said there were statutes that were in place to explain the conduct of elections of the BFA as an affiliate of the Botswana National Sport Commission (BNSC).

He explained that according to FIFA, government’s involvement in issues pertaining to their member association’s matters was regarded as interference.

Mr Ramokate said all they could discern was that due processes were observed pertaining to the electoral process.

“Interested parties are there and it’s fair to say it is an election, there is competition and an attempt to get an upper hand by contestants.

All we could applaud was that they were able to stick to what was on the table - statutes,” he added.

Quizzed on why there was so much contest for the post, Ramokate said remuneration of any kind was not being paid by government, but could not confirm or deny if the BFA was paying allowance as it was their own prerogative.

He admitted that the office was a prestigious post with various incentives as per FIFA regulations.

Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly and Mochudi East MP,  Mabuse Pule had pleaded with the PS to enlighten the committee of the recent stalemate ahead of the BFA congress.

Responding to other questions directed to his ministry, Mr Ramokate said they were intending to build sport to become commercial in Botswana, which was one of the major responsibilities of the BNSC.

“The only way we could achieve professionalism is when clubs could be able to pay their athletes. 

For now we got a good response from the private sector and we are supporting our industry of sporting apparel. 

We need to improve governance of both clubs and associations and we are also paying national team athletes incentives,” he said.

He explained that privatisation of the Botswana Premier League was on the cards as a company had been formed to take care of that arrangement.

He added that they had developed schools of excellence where a pool of talented athletes were identified and groomed.

Ramokate said their wish now was to develop academies in the coming planning period.

Chairperson of the PAC and Selebi Phikwe West MP, 

Dithapelo Keorapetse had asked if it was not ideal to develop academies in sporting codes such as karate, softball, boxing, athletics, among other codes, which had proved in the past to be competitive at global level.

Ramokate concurred and said it would not be cost effective to start with codes which were not competitive.Concerning the Youth Development Fund (YDF) Ramokate said it was an ideal programme to empower young people to become entrepreneurs.

He said government developed policies that provided opportunities for youth in all respects.Ramokate explained the P2 million fund allocated to constituencies and said like any other plans and policies, it could be subjected to review.

Addressing the issue of land, Ramokate said there was a policy at the Ministry of Lands and Housing Developments to give priority to those funded under the YDF.

Ramokate said the main challenge was the scarcity of land and in some cases and where land was available it was out of reach to youth.

He said markets were also saturated and highly competitive, which proved to be a challenge to youth businesses.

Ramokate admitted that their attempts to create job opportunities for the youth was not yet satisfactory, but made an assurance that the incoming Arts Council Bill would come in handy, especially for the creative industry. Ends