27 Oct 2025

Newly-elected Botswana National Olympic Committee (BNOC) president, Tshepo Sitale has promised to hit the ground running as there are major events coming which the country has to earnestly prepare for.

In an interview, Sitale cited the Africa Youth Games scheduled for December in Angola and the Commonwealth Games billed for Scotland in July 2026, highlighting that Botswana was already late into preparations for the former.

He said other countries were currently in camp in preparations for the Africa Youth Games; games that he said Botswana has to fully prepare for as they are a building block that ensure among other things, that athletes are competitive.

Sitale, who disclosed that they currently have at their disposal P2 million to prepare for the games, explained that they have requested for a budget of P9 million from government.

“We currently have P2 million, and we need to identify strategic and innovative ways of using these limited funds to prepare the team while still waiting for more funds to be availed,” he said, noting that they were alive to the budgetary constraints that government was faced with.

Regarding the Commonwealth Games, he said Botswana was still yet to start preparations while other countries had already started their training regimes for the games.

This he said, was despite the fact that the games are just nine months away. In that regard, Sitale said they needed to have a conversation with the relevant stakeholders so that preparations could start right away.

“We are aware that on the athletics side, they were still on their off season, but we need to come in as BNOC to look at our elite athletes and see how best they can prepare,” he said.

On other issues, Sitale expressed excitement that parliament had passed the National Anti-Doping bill, saying once signed into law, it would go a long way in addressing doping, which was quickly becoming a national crisis.

“I believe it will be signed into law soon so that it gives lawful provision to legally institute appropriate measures to encounter incidents relating to doping,” he said.

Furthermore, he rallied all stakeholders to actively contributes to efforts aimed at fighting doping, an enemy that threatened to undo the gains that had been made in developing sport.

Meanwhile, Sitale clinched the BNOC presidency after being voted by 20 delegates and Yarona Sharp on the other hand received nine votes while Ookeditse Malesu secured a solitary vote. For the senior vice president position, Michael Moroka got 23 votes, with Moagi Sharp amassing seven.

For the first vice president position, Tebo Segaise ran unopposed in the second round after Oaitse Thipe and Bob Lekan were eliminated in order to allow her to satisfy the BNOC Constitution which requires a candidate to have garnered votes in excess of 50 per cent in order to be deemed to have won.

In the second round, Segaise got 19 votes, while for the first round she received 10 votes against nine each for Lekan and Thipe, respectively.

Game Mompe became the new BNOC second vice president after beating Unaswi Matebu by 15-14, while the addition members are Boikobo Gaolebalwe, Kebalebile Ramontsho, and Ofentse Bakwadi. ENDS