Botswana: Botswana Minister of Youth, Gender, Sport and Culture, Tumiso Rakgare, organized an engagement with Botswana National Sports Council and National Sports Associations on Wednesday. The meeting was based on discussing sports issues in general.
In the engagement, Minister Rakgare addressed the National Sports Associations and said that 2023 has been both challenging and exciting at the same time.
Amongst the many notable achievements made this year, Minister Rakgare stated that Letsile Tebogo’s historic medal double at the 2023 World Athletics Championships and the Mares’ qualification to the 2024 WAFCON were historic in Botswana’s sporting legacy.
In terms of governance, Rakgare indicated that he is concerned about the leadership and governance issues at some of the NSAs.
He also condemned the tendency of trying to resolve sports issues through the media instead of addressing such issues within the office.
National Sports Associations were also advised to work together for the betterment of sports development in Botswana rather than causing divisions among themselves.
With regard to school sport, Minister Rakgare availed that very little progress has been made towards restoring sport in public schools. He said recently, “There have been ongoing negotiations between the teacher structures, DPSM and other entities, which we hope will result in something more tangible in early 2024”.
In closing, Minister Rakgare revealed that a Bill for the new BNSC Act has gained a lot of traction, and it is circulating within the government enclave.
The new bill will clearly define the roles and responsibilities between the Botswana National Sports Council (BNSC) and the Botswana National Olympic Committee (BNOC), with the BNOC taking responsibility for sports development and all competitions while BNSC will focus on funding, facilities management and regulation amongst other things.
After the speech closure, attendees also gave their remarks and suggestions. One of the attendees said, “The country should start to invest more in trainers to acquire practice Licenses for the proper development of athletes at all levels. The B.F.A model, if properly followed, I think, can produce more complete players and trainers in the near future. The country can even start to produce millionaires from licensed coaches as they will be eligible to coach anywhere on the continent.”