26 Sep 2025

 Rewarding athletes remains crucial in not only acknowledging their hard work, dedication and success but to also fuel future performance and ultimately raise the profile of the nation on the global stage.

It is on such a background that government has committed to support athletes and promote the growth of sport and arts throughout the country.

Addressing a press conference on Tuesday, Minister of Sport and Arts, Jacob Kelebeng, announced that government had rolled out a P1.559 million reward package for the athletes and officials who participated at the recent World Athletics Championships held in Tokyo, Japan.

Minister Kelebeng said the reward package was in line with the existing Incentives and Rewards Policy, which included rewarding athletes with P150 000 for a gold medal, P100 000 (silver medal), P75 000 (bronze medal) and P20 000 for top eight finish.

He said the reward package was, over and above, the support provided for team preparation, which included a pre-competition acclimatisation camp in South Korea and also covered appearance fees and facilitation of qualification to the World Championships through build-up competitions like the World Relays held in May this year.

Kelebeng also told the media that the ministry had, however, begun the process of reviewing and refining the incentive policy to ensure that it aligned with national priorities, which aimed to ensure sport became a key driver of the country’s economy.

“This indicates a strategic move toward making professional sport a more sustainable and financially viable sector in Botswana,” he said.

On issuing diplomatic passports to excelling athletes, Minister Kelebeng said the ministry desired to see athletes use such documents and believed that the move would significantly motivate other athletes to strive for greater achievements.

To that effect, he said the ministry had already made efforts and had since referred the matter to the Ministry of International Relations.

On one hand, Kelebeng acknowledged lack of representation in field events at major international competitions.

“We are aware of the fact that the country used to have a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Cuba helping with field events,” he said.

He thus highlighted the need to revisit the MoU in efforts to restart development and further ensure holistic growth across all athletic disciplines. ENDS