16 Jun 2024

With Botswana sport experiencing  shortage of women in decision-making positions, one may wonder; are they not capable, or they are not confident to occupy the leadership space?

Most of the women prefer to be additional members in the National Executive Committees, an example being the Botswana Football Association where all seats are occupied by men, except for the only seat reserved for women representative.

Similarly, the Botswana Athletics Association top position, that is president, and three vice president positions are occupied by men, and women are only at the additional members positions.

However, there are some women who are brave enough to take the bull by the horns. One of them is Tsoseletso ‘Scud’ Magang. Magang is an astute woman whose track record speaks volumes of her achievements from her time as an athlete and an administrator.

During her time as an athlete, she represented the country in both track where she was doing 100 metres and long jump and she still holds the National Record. In 1994 and 1998 she represented the country at the Commonwealth Games that were held in Canada, and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia respectively.

As volleyball player, she blossomed becoming one of the best players this country has ever produced,.

 During the 1993 Women’s African Volleyball Championship, held in Nigeria, she was voted as the Most Valuable Player and best attacker, the first Motswana to win an international award.

As an administrator, ‘Scud’ has served as an administrator at the Botswana Football Association (BFA), the Botswana National Sport Commission (BNSC), WASBO Executive Committee and president of the Botswana Volleyball Federation (BVF) from 2007-2009.

In 2016 Magang was inducted into sports Hall of Fame as a way of appreciating her contribution to sport over the years.

Having served as the BVF president from 2007-2009, the delegates found it necessary to usher her back to the position unopposed in 2022, a position she still holds today.

 But what keeps Magang ticking as a shrewd sport administrator? She explains that there is a huge difference between being a player and an administrator.

“The difference is that as a player you are told there is a tournament, you just focus on the preparation, and you don’t know anything that happens behind the scenes,” she said.

Magang said now as an administrator, for that tournament to happen one had to be hands on and make sure that athletes’ welfare were catered for, and all the logistics were in place.

Quizzed about what makes her a great leader, she said she started the leadership journey when still very young as an athlete. “Maybe because it was just a coincidence that there were not a lot of women in leadership so I was used as a tick box even though I was still an athlete. I was put in BNSC committees when I was doing second year at University of Botswana,” she said.

That,  she said,  was when she started the leadership journey, adding that the time she stopped playing, she was in the sport development committee.

She was also the first chairperson of the interim athletics referees committee, as well as the vice chairperson of Kutlwano Volleyball Club.

Talking about the challenges she faces as the BVF president, she said male counterparts do not trust that women can lead. “It is a struggle for women to convince men because there is always doubt, so my belief has been that we must create a big pot of leaders for organisations to choose from. If we don’t bring in people and expose their leadership abilities we will never know that they can lead in the future,” she said. Ends