Netball appointments raise eyebrows
The Botswana National Sport Commission (BNSC) has hired two coaches for netball at the Mogoditshane Senior Secondary School Centre of Sport Excellence but the selection has irked some sections.
The two coaches are Kagisano Mawela and Sithulile Mlotshwa who have been appointed on 12-month renewable contracts. Mawela is the Under-21 coach while Mlotshwa is the senior national team coach.
However, some people feel there were better deserving candidates.
“We feel that some of the requirements were overlooked. The advert clearly stated that the candidates should be unemployed but one of the coaches has a working contract with one of the clubs. When affiliates seek clarification from BONA, we are told that BNSC is the one that hired,” a source said.
According to the advert, which came out in November, the duties of the coaches include developing and implementing programmes for all players under the Centre of Excellence programmes. The coaches are also expected to keep a coaching diary for all training sessions, supervise all training sessions for the team, and team selection for events and competitions.
The coaches should take attendance register for every training session and submit it to the sport development officer at the end of the month. The requirements were that the candidates should be unemployed, hold Africa Level 1 coaching qualification or have equivalent experience.
Asked on the issue of one of the coaches having a running contract with a club, BNSC sports development director-technical, Bobby Gaseitsiwe said the issue should be referred to BONA.
BONA public relations officer, Mokeresete Mokeresete instead said the BNSC was the one that hired the coaches, not the netball body. Regarding Mawela and Mlotshwa national teams’ duties, Mokeresete said an announcement will be made in due course.
Meanwhile, Gaseitsiwe said from 2015 they had two caretaker coaches at the Centre of Excellence who were engaged from outside on a voluntary basis. The centre was opened in 2014.
“As an organisation, we realised that the arrangement was not working and giving minimal results. We, therefore, proposed to MYSC to restructure the programmes by employing full-time coaches,” he said.
Gaseitsiwe said all involved were informed that the sport ministry has approved the BNSC plan and this year BONA advertised internally seeking coaches. “The coaches applied and the BONA executive completed the process and gave us two names of the coaches who applied and went through their process. You should note that the requirements were purely from the National Sport Associations and BNSC was not involved.
We will only be involved in giving the coaches their allowances,” Gaseitsiwe said.