02 May 2024

Moroka Athletics Association meet planned for the National Stadium tomorrow has been cancelled due to non-availability of the facility. 

The stadium has been booked for Orange FA Cup doubleheader between UB Hawks and Police XI followed by Township Rollers and Orapa United. 

Moroka Athletics Club’s Moses Gochela attribute the debacle to failure by Botswana Athletics Association (BAA) to book the stadium for their event as it was the procedure. 

Gochela said in an interview that they made a formal request to BAA to host the event on April 4 and they checked the venue availability and they were given the green light. 

Three weeks back, he said they met with the BAA secretariat to update them about the preparations. 

“What is frustrating is that Larona Koosimile from BAA had confirmed that the stadium was available for us. However on Tuesday I received a WhatsApp call from him telling me the bad news,” he said. 

Furthermore, he said what was disappointing was the fact that countries such as Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa and Malawi had already confirmed their participation. 

Already athletes such as Namibia’s Christine Mboba, Elton Hoeseb, Ezra Do Santos, Gift Masahu, Corley Viljoen, Shaney Viljoen and Nicholis du Plessis were to participate at the meet.   

He said they had incurred a lot of expenses in preparing for the event, as they had wanted to deliver a successful event.

“Malawi has told us that they had already bought flight tickets and they had already paid allowances to all the athletes who were scheduled to compete on Saturday while the Mozambique team was to leave on Wednesday evening. So we don’t know if they would want their refund,” said Gochela.

For his part, BAA vice president, Oabaona Theetso said they would investigate why the stadium was not booked for the Moroka Athletics Club given that they had made their intention known of hosting the event well on time. 

Theetso said BAA would take appropriate action once investigations had been completed. “It cannot be business as usual, we are talking about the welfare of the athletes, BAA reputation and we cannot allow this complacency,” he said. 

“The sport development-technical gave us the impression that the stadium was booked for the track and field event,” Theetso said, adding that not hosting the meet tomorrow would be a serious blow to BAA, given that they wanted to give athletes an opportunity to qualify for major events such as the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. 

In addition, he said the meet was the last one before the BAA National Championships to be held from May 17 to 19.

He said the meet would have helped athletes prepare for the nationals.

Botswana National Sports Commission Marketing and Communications Manager, Anderson Nlisana said the BAA never booked the venue for Saturday. 

He said the booking was done on first come first serve basis, adding that their facilities were not booked verbally as the process included amongst others checking the availability of the venue and making payments.

“The BFA has booked for the day that the BAA wanted. When we informed them (BAA) that the facility was not available, they then requested to use it in the morning and it was not going to be possible because, BAA have a double-header and the games will be broadcasted and Btv will be on the ground in the morning,” he said. ENDS