04 Nov 2021

Botswana National Olympic Committee (BNOC) goes to the polls tomorrow.

Three astute and credible incumbents, Botsang Tshenyego, Ookeditse Malesu and Tirelo Mukokomani will be vying for the presidency.

The three candidates and their teams have been soliciting votes and now the onus lies with delegates to vote for their preferred candidates, who will push the BNOC strategy, and possibly win medals for the country at the Olympics and Commonwealth Games.

Tshenyego said in an interview that he wanted to be retained as he had experience and knowledge of sport.

“I am a board member of ANOCA Zone 6, and lead the sub-structure on Prevention of Manipulation of Competition.

This is a Sport Integrity Project that is not just assigned mindlessly.

It is credibility and integrity confirmed,” he said.

Tshenyego contended that continuity brought stability to an organisation while elections validated continued suitability.

“I teach sport management with an IOC accreditation.

Being an ISO 9001 implementor and auditor, I bring a lot of systems thinking into the way the BNOC does business,” he said.

The BNOC strategy cycle ends on the year of games, as such they were now into the 2022 -24 quadrennial, adding that the strategy runs for four years leading to Paris 2024.

“In between, there are Commonwealth Games Birmingham 2022 and other major games that are used to gauge our performance heading to Olympic Games.

There are new key result areas in the new strategy aligned to the IOC Agenda 2020+5 and others in support of our general membership and stakeholders,” he said.

Another presidential candidate, Malesu said he was cognisant of the fact that some people were not comfortable that he was contesting for the BNOC election, because they were of the view that he had been competing for the positions in different codes.

“They think I am all over; karate, swimming, athletics, softball and tennis, but to be honest it is a great exposure needed at the BNOC,” he said.

Malesu said if given the mandate, he would ensure that Botswana won four Olympic medals, eight Commonwealth Games medals and two Beach Games medals.

He said he would ensure that national high performance policy and Long Term Athletes Development Programmes were fully functional.

Furthermore, Malesu said there was a need to have atleast one high performance centre and four technical training centres.

If voted, he said he would advocate for Botswana to host Commonwealth and Olympic qualifying events.

For his part, Mukokomani said having been at the helm of sport, both as an athlete and administrator for a long time, had helped him to garner more experience, and he was ready to lead such a big organisation as BNOC.

He said the time he spent  leading softball taught him a lot about leadership, accountability and responsibility.

Mukokomani also said if voted, he would fast-track development, by forging strategic partnerships with international organisations.

He expressed the need to have more efficient funding, adding that the BNOC had chunks of land, where they could develop own facilities.

Botswana, he said, was well suited economically, and politically to be among the highest-ranking countries in the world in terms of sport.

“We have achieved tremendous success in areas of athletics, softball, boxing and other codes, and you can’t develop your athletes if you don’t develop your officials,” he said.

Meanwhile, the senior vice president position will be contested for by Thari Mooketsi and Tshepo Sitale, while the first vice president position will be contested for by Patrick Moesi and Mthandazo Moroka.

Boineelo Hardy and Tiny Kgatlwane will compete for the position of second vice president.

Irene Ntealamo, Mmaneke Maplanka, Tebo Segaise, Unaswi Matebu, Yarona Sharp, Tlamelo Dube and Reabetswe Jaba opted to compete for two available additional board members positions. ENDS