10 Dec 2023

Botswana National Olympic Committee (BNOC) is working on employing
a substantive Chief Executive Officer following the departure of Botho Bayendi for greener pastures.

Bayendi, who was appointed on a five-year contract in 2002, left the organisation a year later and no permament appointment has been made since then.

BNOC president Botsang Tshenyego said during an annual general assembly in Gaborone on Saturday, that given the 2024 Olympic Games billed for Paris in July, strategic decisions were required to be made to ensure Team Botswana’s success, hence the need to hire BNOC CEO.

Additionally, he said the transition that the organisation had undergone resulted in increased board activity, to ensure that they successfully steered the organisation through potential tumult.

Furthermore, Tshenyego said the board was complimented by sub-structures whose members were handpicked from both the general membership and specialised industries to add the necessary requisite expertise and experience to the necessary committee or commission.

“Such experts strategically advise the board and by extension the secretariat in different areas. In maintaining alignment with the IOC, these structures have grown to include; Sustainability Committee, Safeguarding Committee, High Performance and Team Preparations Committee, Athletes,” he said.

As part of preparation for the Olympics, he said BNOC, had been in talks with Diadora, an Italian merchandising and sport Apparel Company for partnership ahead of the Paris 2024 Games.

“This deal could see Diadora partnering with Team Botswana to Paris 2024 as the official apparel partner for Paris 2024 Olympic Games and beyond. Details of the agreement will be shared upon completion, however at this stage I can announce that a Memorandum of Understanding has been signed, ahead of the finalised agreement,” he said.

BNOC caretaker CEO Tebogo Kesupile said the budgeting environment had improved drastically within the organisation and implementation of monitoring expenditure against the budget is 100 per-cent complete.

She said whilst adherence to expenditure against designated budget lines could pose a challenge in certain critical instances, the BNOC intends to optimise value from its SAGE EVOLUTION software package, as a way of strengthening its overall financial management.

She said financial resources continue to be limited for the organisation however cost saving measures have been implemented holistically.

This includes a scheduled move to new, more financially prudent offices to keep costs down. ENDS