17 Dec 2023

There is an urgent need to resuscitate school sport to help the country stay competitive at all levels.

This was said by the chairperson of Botswana National Sport Commission (BNSC), Marumo Morule on December 16 during the commission’s annual general meeting.  

Morule said deep reflection on possible solutions to the issue was needed.  He argued that the main challenge was lack of funds.  

He added that they had requested about P60 million to deal with the challenge, but only got P10 million and that it would be received in batches.

He said the community also needed to be engaged as they were stakeholders, adding that the stalemate has had a negative effect on many sporting codes such as athletics and football.

Morule said despite the challenges, BNSC was committed to bringing back school sport. 

He also said they were currently piloting with a few associations to establish development centres in 16 districts, and that the feedback they got was positive. 

“Equipment for each pilot sport has been bought and distributed, and the main challenge has been finding volunteer coaches in the concerned areas,” he said.

He appealed to sporting codes to assist in guiding BNSC to address the challenge.

For his part, BNSC chief executive officer, Tuelo Serufho said the stalemate started when the Ministry of Education said it was unsustainable to give out P80 million annually in associated teachers’ allowances.

Serufho said they engaged teachers’ unions on the issue and submitted a proposal of P40 million towards teachers’ allowances, but that the unions cheapest counter proposal was P200 million and the highest P800 million.

He said there was no chance of an agreement because P200 million was the whole annual budget for the commission and P800 million the budget for the whole ministry. 

 He, however, said negotiations were ongoing.  ENDS