04 May 2023

In the wake of Namibia pulling out on the eleventh hour in the bid to co-host AFCON 2027, Botswana has revealed its intention to bid on its own.

With the submission of a bid book deadline only 20 days away (May 23) the Minister of Youth, Sports, Arts and Culture, Tumiso Rakgare has assured the nation during a media briefing on Wednesday, that it was all systems go and the country was determined to host AFCON in 2027.

Despite losing Namibia as hosting partner, Rakgare said Botswana had last month, submitted her declaration of intent to host the event. 

Faced with the predicament the country had two options of taking Namibia route or going solo.

However, Rakgare said government took a decision to continue with the bid.

“We are in it to win it,” he said, adding that consultations primarily with the Ministry of Finance were ongoing to re-prioritise funds and establish how the country was going to make it possible on its own.

At first while with Namibia, Rakgare said the country was required to build two new stadiums and refurbish two, therefore since their partners had pulled out, the infrastructure requirement had increased.

Initially, through the 60/40 model between Botswana and Namibia, the country was expected to contribute 60 per cent towards bidding and hosting, which was over P4.6 billion, adding that the country would have to foot the whole bill.

Giving a background on the initial BoNa 2027 bid, Rakgare said a decision was taken by Cabinet in December 2021 for the country to engage Namibia in co-hosting the 36^th edition of the Africa Cup of Nations billed for 2027.

He said a 60-40 model was adopted in sharing bidding and hosting costs. 

Rakgare added that the principle was also to apply in relation to sharing of profits post the competition and a Memorandum of Agreement was signed to that effect.

As it was customary, Rakgare said a joint technical committee was established for the bidding process and one of its activities in paving way for the project was conducting an audit of facilities as well as compiling a bid book.

He said the audit of the facilities was to be done at a cost of over P2.2 million, of which Botswana as per the 60-40 agreed model was to pay a little over P1.3 million. 

The minister said the information gathered through the audit was key to compilation of the bid book as per the requirements of the proposed bid.

“Bid book is a comprehensive document and an important component of the bid as well as the facility audit as it guides the country on what is supposed to be done to bring the facilities to AFCON standards,” he said.

Additionally, Rakgare said the consultant who was engaged in the facility audit was also assigned to compile the bid book, which came at a cost of about P65.7 million and that Botswana was to pay its 60 per cent share which was about P39.4 million, while Namibia was to cover her 40 per cent share of about P26.3.

However, he said the joint bid collapsed on the eleventh hour prior to the day of submitting the intention to host, as Namibia pulled out issuing a notice of failure to fulfill the costs of the application. 

He said chief among their reason of pulling out was that it was not in a position to pay the consultation fee.

Rakgare said the Botswana government understood the position of Namibia and therefore gave it the respect that it deserves.

“We thank Namibia for having shown interest and being in partnership with us in an effort to host the mammoth project and hope that we will continue to engage each other in many other projects in the future,” he said.

He said an option of getting another partner in bidding for the 36^th edition of the AFCON does not exist anymore, therefore the country has taken a decision to do it on its own.

For the first time, Rakgare has revealed that while engaged with Namibia, the country had at one point approached Zambia, with the view to lure it in to form a tripartite team. 

Rakgare said the country pleaded with Zambia to withdraw from bidding for the 2025 edition, but the proposal did not materialise.

“We had interest of not only partnering with Namibia to host the AFCON 2027, but we were looking at any other partner as we believe hosting as a team would result in a strong bid and cut costs,” he said.

Meanwhile, BoNa 2027 chairperson, Ashford Mamelodi has assured that even though the country was pressed by time to submit its bid by May 23, it would not be necessary to engage another facility audit.

He said Botswana and other countries bidding for AFCON 2027 being Algeria and Egypt would submit their bid books on May 23 in Egypt. 

Following submission of bid books, Mamelodi said the next stage would be inspection by CAF of all bidding countries in relation to the contents of the bid books.

Mamelodi said the CAF inspection would then be followed by a decision on which country has won the rights to host the 36^th edition of AFCON. 

“Another inspection will be done on the progress of what whoever won the bid was doing in preparation for the tournament, key being construction of stadia and other infrastructure,” he said. Ends