20 Aug 2020

More than P12.4 million has been paid to athletes and artists to help them during COVID -19.

Answering questions in Parliament on August 9,  Assistant Minister of Youth Empowerment, Sport and Culture Development, Mr Billy Buti said athletes were paid P3 567 430 while artists received P8 842 500.

The Assistant Minister indicated that the amount per athlete per discipline varied from P250 to P2 500, adding that for artists per discipline the money varied from P1000 to P2 500.

He said the criteria for the amounts were based on the amounts the clubs had been paying the players before COVID-19, the league of the club that had applied, adding that players in the Premier League clubs received a maximum of P2 500 while for First Division clubs the maximum was P1 500.

Mr Buti said artists that had registered for President’s day Celebrations received P1000 and those registered with COSBOTS received a maximum of P2 500.

He highlighted that a maximum cap of P2 500 was applied to align the relief programme to other government COVID-19 relief programmes.

He said a total of 2 991 requests for assistance were rejected. “Of these rejections 150 applications were from sports and 2 841 from the arts,” he added.

Serowe North MP, Mr Baratiwa Mathoothe had asked minister to state the amount that the ministry had dispersed to help athletes and artists during COVID – 19 as well as the amounts per athlete or artists per discipline benefitted.

He also wanted to know the criteria used to determine the amounts and the number of requests for assistance submitted. Ends