03 Dec 2020

The newly refurbished athlete village, which cost government over P4.1 million, was handed over to Botswana National Sport Commission (BNSC) on Tuesday.

The village, which used to accommodate athletes in camp for national team assignments, had not been in a good state for years, until the Ministry of Youth Empowerment, Sport and Culture Development, took a decision to renovate it.

The BNSC acting CEO, Tuelo Serufho said in an interview that government had been spending a lot of money to pay for athletes’ accommodation in different hotels. 

“For example, the experience that we had preparing for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, where we kept a fairly small number of athletes in a camp for some prolonged period of time, we spent quite some substantial amount of money,” he said.

Serufho said now that the athlete village was in a good condition, they would be in a position to save what they had been spending in the past.

He said the athletes, who were preparing for the Olympics would now use the facility, which he said was comfortable enough and would help them to focus on their training. 

Furthermore, he noted that from the savings and the income they would generate, they would be in a good position to maintain the facility, and they would have extra money to pass on to the national sport associations’ development programmes.

Serufho said as sport they continued to have challenges in finding reasonable accommodation, adding that clubs and other societies within the sporting fraternity found it difficult to afford conventional rates that were offered by mainstream accommodation providers.

“Now, we do trust that when teams come to Gaborone for their different competitions they will have a home away from home.

Also schools coming for national competitions can use the facility for a fee,” he said.

According to Serufho, the village also presents an opportunity for Botswana sport to generate its own money, given that the village would be an income-generating facility for its maintenance.  Ends