09 Mar 2026

Minister of Sport and Arts, Jacob Kelebeng has confirmed that the National Stadium will be ready to host the World Athletics Relays scheduled for May 2-3. 

Minister Kelebeng said renovation of the athletics track, which was the designated competition venue, had been completed and it included replacement of the running track and the facility was now awaiting certification by World Athletics.

He said additional maintenance works such as painting of spectator seats, extension of VIP ablution facilities, painting of the stadium exterior and various electrical upgrades were progressing well and were expected to be completed by April 11.

He added that the renovation of the University of Botswana stadium running track, which would serve as the warm-up track for the World Relays, was also underway and scheduled for completion by the end of this month. Regarding the non-compliant status of the National Stadium under the Confederation of African Football (CAF) requirements, Kelebeng said, the stadium was not accredited to host Category 3 matches.

“The main issues relate to the location and configuration of the dressing rooms, which must be relocated to the Grand stand side, as per CAF standards,” he said.

Additionally, he said CAF Category 3 accreditation required the construction of a media box with workstations, an electronic ticketing system, fully equipped doping control and medical rooms, as well as a video operating centre for security monitoring.

“These gaps have contributed to the stadium’s current non-compliance,” he said.

Parliament also heard that football clubs from the southern part of the country hosting continental matches in Francistown faced additional costs, which included P450,000 for chartered flights for visiting teams and match officials travelling between Gaborone and Francistown, as well as accommodation costs for the visiting teams. 

He however assured Parliament that government continued to work to address the infrastructure irregularities at the National Stadium to ensure that, going forward, clubs based in the southern part of the country were able to host continental matches at home and represent the country without incurring avoidable extra costs.

Kelebeng further told Parliament that Botswana provided financial support to national teams through annual grants allocated to their respective National Sport Associations.

He said for clubs participating in continental competitions, the primary responsibility for funding remained with the individual clubs and their governing associations. In some cases, he said, international bodies such as CAF may provide limited financial support depending on the stage of competition.

Minister Kelebeng was answering a question in Parliament from Molepolole North MP, Arafat Khan, who had asked whether the national stadium would be ready to host the World Relays this year, and what challenges had prevented the facility from being compliant with the CAF standards.

Khan also wanted to understand how much was costing local football clubs from the southern part of the country to host their continental matches in Francistown due to non- compliant state of the National Stadium. 

He further wanted to know whether government provided any form of assistance to the clubs to mitigate such costs and if not, when the irregularity would be addressed given that such clubs represented not only themselves but country in continental competitions. BOPA