31 May 2023

Botswana National Sport Commission (BNSC) is adjusting its programmes to help address youth unemployment.

Consequently, intakes for the Zebra Athlete Fund and the Elite Scholarship programme will change for the 2023/2024 financial year with the BNSC giving priority to athletes that have international professional leagues from which they may not just carve out a living, but could possibly make millions in the process

A 2023 Forbes article on the world’s top 50 highest paid athletes in 2022 shows that the least paid made U$45.2 million (approximately P600 million) and the sports that featured in the top 50 are football, basketball, baseball, boxing, golf, tennis, American football and auto racing.

While not paying at the levels of the sports listed above, athletics, cycling, cricket, ice hockey, rugby and swimming among others also have international professional leagues and circuits on which top performing athletes make millions of dollars per annum.

Except baseball, American football and ice hockey, all the sports listed are practiced in Botswana, some more widely than others.

While not pre-empting the BNSC’s selection process, it is assumed that if they live true to their intention, athletes from the listed sports should dominate the Zebra and Elite scholarship programmes.

BNSC chief executive officer, Tuelo Serufho said in an interview that they had a responsibility to assist government in its quest to not only create jobs for young people, but to also increase earnings and diversify the economy among other things.

“We currently have a system that is both largely dependent on government and not yielding the required results at the same time. Such a system is not only undesirable but also unsustainable in the long run,” he said.

Serufho said they would be careful in selecting athletes to the two programmes and especially on the Zebra, to ensure that athletes either turn professional or get full scholarships from international universities as opposed to the current set up where they tended to look to the same government to sponsor them to universities.

“Universities in the United States and the United Kingdom, recruit the best talent from across the world and take care of their costs.

If we can get a lot of Botswana athletes through those, then we are relieving the government of Botswana which is seized with many other responsibilities,” he said.

Applications for the two programme for the financial year 2023/2024 have recently opened and successful applications are expected to be announced betweeen June and July. Ends