BNSC acts on Makwala’s concerns

The Botswana National Sport Commission (BNSC) has said that they will compensate Isaac Makwala for setting national records if relevant information is provided.

The commission was reacting after the athlete’s remarks on social media over the weekend. Among other issues, Makwala complained about being overlooked for the Sportsperson of the Year award, which he felt he deserved.

BNSC chief executive officer (CEO), Tuelo Serufho told Mmegi Sport that he has had an opportunity to listen to Makwala’s grievances on social media.

“We would have expected an athlete of his calibre to have followed protocol in escalating his concern. If he had submitted to the Botswana Athletics Association (BAA) and felt that they were not giving attention to his request, he could have approached us to say that he has grievances and the BAA had not done enough to attend to them. And assuming that we also do not give attention to his grievances, then he could then escalate to the ministry,” he said. Serufho said now Makwala has approached the issue differently. Regarding the awards, Serufho explained they were scored fairly according to the information that is provided to them.

“We source information from the National Sport Associations (NSA). We then score athletes, administrators and coaches on the strength of the information from NSAs.

As the BNSC, we are not competent to validate the results from NSAs. Half the time we are not at the events and we do not have a direct link with international federations to be able to validate the times that an athlete would have run at an event,” he said.

Serufho said they have limitations and that is why they depend on NSAs to provide information and results that they could validate. He said he was convinced that Makwala’s failure to win the award had nothing to do with the commission and they only acted according to the information they had received.

“Be it as it may, we have been trying to continue to improve as a commission as we moved along. We have reviewed a lot of our programmes including the awards, to say are we happy as how they have been approached in the past or should we identify some gaps in the process,” Serufho said. Regarding the incentives, he explained that they have a policy in place.

He said anybody who meets the criteria set, is entitled to receive the incentive.

He said the process is simple, the NSA that is responsible where the record was set, has to put an application and provide all the required information; there is no discussion, the athlete would get what they are entitled to.

“We would be guided by BAA to say that the athlete attained this record and it was official,” he added. BAA said they will make sure Makwala is paid for setting 400m African record in 2014.

Makwala broke the 400m African record after clocking 44:01 during the La Chaux-de-Fonds meet in Switzerland in 2014. World Athletics (WA) had sanctioned the meet. He also broke the 200m record with 19:96 at the same event.

BAA general manager, Pinkie Wilson said there was confusion about the process. “Even Makwala himself was confused about what was due to him.

He only woke up this year when another athlete, Letsile Tebogo broke the national record and was paid. That was when he approached us and we have started processing the payments for him,” Wilson said Makwala is entitled to P40,000.

Meanwhile, the chairperson for the Adjudication Panel Sports Awards, Charmaine Khupe said it is best to accord Makwala audience through the appropriate channels and work together to relieve him of the concerns.

“Unfortunately, I cannot respond to those he raised about 2015 and the rest, except for the 2017 awards. The current panel was not in effect in 2015. I can confirm that the 2017 Sportsman of the Year was Ofentse Bakwadi from karate.

The Sportsperson of the Year was Karabo Sibanda of athletics, who was Junior Male award winner. In his concerns, I would remind him that he was refereeing to 2018 awards,” Khupe said.

She explained that Makwala was the Sportsman of the Year in 2018. Khupe said certainly and deservingly, Sportsperson of that Year was Emmanuel Kgaboetsile, a qualified world badminton umpire.

“The adjudication process in its entirety is an agreement by all NSAs that was voted and ratified. This includes the categories in that process for umpires/ referees who are inclusive,” Khupe said. She noted that Makwala has opened a discussion that must be unpacked and acted on.

Khupe said Makwala is one of the best athletes to have been produced in Botswana and should be celebrated. “In my opinion, he is shedding much-needed light to not only a situation but a solution that I pray got attention from the government who is our main sponsor.

My wish is to have a meaningful conversation collectively to see this amazing potential through,” she said. Khupe said she was aware of the task force that was looking into school sports, saying it was a great start at the grassroots level. “However, it is my opinion to also give attention at professional levels where our Makwalas are,” Khupe said.