21 Sep 2022

The Botswana National Sport Commission (BNSC) has proposed a policy to ensure diversity, equity and inclusion in sport.

BNSC CEO, Tuelo Serufho, announced this at a press conference in Gaborone, September 21.

The policy will be presented to national sport associations at the BNSC general assembly in November.

Due to imbalances and gaps in the sport development framework, Serufho said BNSC worked with the committee of equity and recreation to develop the policy.

The intention, he added, was to bring about balance and opportunities for all.

“Women are always complaining that as administrators of sport, it’s like we offer men a bigger share of the cake, especially when it comes to issues concerning payments,” he said.

Consequently, Serufho said the policy would ensure a balance and compel national sport associations to pay men and women equally.

“As the commission and the ministry, ours will be to enforce the outcomes at our level. We may be constrained in some instances like in CAF where the men’s AFCON is paying more than the women’s,” he added.

Serufho said the policy also wanted to ensure that certain opportunities were presented to children in remote areas.

In other issues, the BNSC chief said they empowered athletes through several programmes such as the Elite Scholarship Fund, Zebra Athlete Fund and Sport Development Fund.

Serufho said some athletes had also been sponsored for tertiary education, adding most of them had improved and were assisting national teams to scoop medals.

Amongst such are Gable Garenamotse, Kabelo Mmono and Peaceful Seleka to mention but a few.

However, he said they wished to get more out of these programmes, adding they had reviewed guidelines to include timely targets for athletes.  Ends