Govt sectors wooed into sport development

Teenage 100m protege Tebogo Letsile and his compatriot Anthony Pesela assured the local community on the future success of the country in the field of athletics as they registered impressive performance at the World Junior Championships in Kenya, snatching Gold medals, along the way.

There was clear and genuine interest from the public and business community as the nation celebrated heroics of their own superstars. The Botswana National Olympic Committee ( BNOC) and Botswana Athletics Association ( BAA) had to aggressively address the business community against using their athletes to promote their brands and align themselves with the successes of the now global superstars.

Despite the above mentioned successes, there has been calls for more involvement by other sectors of the economy to implement rigorous and robust development programs. The BNSC in their long term development strategic plan are targeting at least 5 medals at the 2028 Olympics.

“We are planning to lobby for reserves for sports, recreation and wellness from different Ministries,” Serufho shared. According to Serufho, 75 percent of American athletes who were at the recent Olympics are either university students or have gone through the university. A clear indication that education as a sector can play a pivotal role in sport development.

“We also want to engage the education sector and propose flexed curriculum for athletes to go through their courses. Prolonged duration of courses and fewer modules per semester will mean that athletes can find the right balance between education and sport,” the BNSC CEO highlighted.

For most elite athletes, competing at the highest level means rigorous daily training sessions and there is little time left for anything else. Sport is a very short career and after retirement most athletes have had difficulties to adjust to ‘ normal’ life as they have nothing to channel their energies and focus into. “It is critical that we help our athletes to adopt dual career path, savings alone are not enough. We want to engage with security organs- for example, and propose that in their intakes, they accommodate a certain quota to take our athletes. This will also help to instill discipline on and off the field and ultimately improve our success rate in sport,” Serufho shared their plans to enhance development. Serufho also added that they are looking to engage the government and re- visit the tax rebates law that was intended to promote private sector engagement in sport.

“Private sector contribution is low; we are advocating for a review of the tax rebates manual. More involvement of private sector will enable us to have more professional athletes. That will also mean sport can significantly contribute to the country’s GDP ( gross domestic product). We’ll be able to send more athletes to compete overseas and be able to host major sporting events,” Serufho said.