07 Mar 2021

Botswana National Sports Commission (BNSC) has informed National Sports Associations (NSA) that they will not honour any requests as of March 2021.

A statement from BNSC countersigned by caretaker chief executive officer, Tuelo Serufho says the commission will not honour the request even if the NSA still has a positive balance.

“This is in exception of the request for unavoidable costs such as rentals, salaries and utilities,” he said.

Serufho said BNSC had been affected by government reprioritisation exercise to the extent that it would not receive the balance of its grant in the current financial year unless it is cost related to operations.

In the statement, Serufho said the slower economic performance caused by the pandemic had forced government to reprioritise spending and direct funds to the next financial year.

Affiliates to BNSC had expressed different views about the decision and speaking during an interview, Botswana Karate Association president, Tshepho Bathai said they appreciated government efforts regarding the growth of sports, noting that the public and sports fraternity should understand the damage caused by the pandemic in the global economy.

He said the decision was long overdue because it was communicated in January that associations would not be able to receive their remaining balances even if their accounts had a positive balance.

Bathai said it had disadvantaged a lot of associations because they were busy with preparations for international competitions.

He noted that during these times most associations held annual general meetings, adding that affiliates to the association would believe that the sitting committees were out of the mandate.

Bathai pointed that they intended extending the BOKA training rooms to cater for all athletes, noting that with the new COVID-19 regulations nothing would be easy including finding ways to source the money.

The BOKA leader highlighted that there was an ongoing karate premier league throughout Europe where most of the local athletes took part, but that due to financial constraints they had halted that.

Bathai noted that the leagues were the ones that the local karatekas used to qualify for world competitions.

For his part, Botswana Athletics Associations (BAA) vice president, Oabona Theetso said since the pandemic had affected productivity in local companies it would be hard to source sponsorship and partnerships.

He said they were working together to find the solution of how athletes could maintain fitness and preparedness.

Theetso said they were preparing for Tokyo 2020 and the world championships expected next year, noting that the decision would leave a huge impact in preparation for the competition.

He said for athletes to maintain fitness and qualifications, local competitions would play a vital role to achieve that.

 

Regardless of the impact of COVID-19 on the economy, Theetso appealed to private entities to come on board and help the sports fraternity to recover. ENDS