08 Sep 2024

Women and Sport Botswana (WASBO), Tsabong region has elected Magdeline Shadikong as chairperson.

Shadikong, who stood unopposed, was elected on Saturday during an annual general meeting and her term ends in 2028. 

The delegates further elected Totlhagano Keagaiwa as the vice chairperson, Oaboloka Motlhanke as the secretary, Tsholofelo Kaartze as the treasurer, while Mmabatho Cooper snatched the position of public relations officer.

WASBO national executive committee secretary general, Olebogeng Oitebetse encouraged the new committee to set targets to deliver exceptionally well in pushing the mandate of empowering women and girls in sports. She said gaining a role of responsibility at WASBO required one to have a spirit of volunteerism and should be driven by passion and desire to transform the narrative.

She said identifying talent from grassroots required them to be shrewd in spotting and nurturing talent and to jealously safe guard it against exploitation with the aim of raising national asserts in the likes of athletics star Letsile Tebogo.

Oitebetse also encouraged the outgoing WASBO Tsabong region committee to accord the new comers the necessary support to be able to settle in the office and keep the fire burning. 

 She also encouraged them to engage relevant stakeholders in order to push women and girls forward in competitive and recreational sport. Thus she encouraged the new committee to work closely with Sport Volunteers Movement, another Botswana National Sport Council (BNSC) arm to grow sports.

She said WASBO, an arm of BNSC, was mandated to grow women participation in sports, promote a healthy lifestyle and community participation, to establish networks and encourage resources sharing, promote sport education of women and girls in both recreational and competitive sports.

The sports administrator encouraged Tsabong region to roll out the safeguarding course and the Sexual Harassment Policy to all coaches across the region to enable certification of coaches and officials as well as enhance sport administration in the community. 

The course, she said trained coaches to shield women and girls in sports and recreation from sexual abuse, harassment, and exploitation. 

“It is a smart thing to do to grow the women and girls in sport. 

It also teaches those in positions of authority in sports not to manipulate the children taking advantage of their background,” she said.

For her part, outgoing chairperson for Tsabong region, Kedibonye Sentlabane appreciated that WASBO played a critical role in growing women in football as seen through such coaches as Kesego Kgaudi of Makgabs City FC, who qualified for women football national competitions for the first time in history. 

She said the region was doing well in growing women in sports as they now boast of five women teams, adding that women football was beginning to gain recognition.

Sentlabane, however, highlighted that the association was grappling with financial constraints as sponsors were ignorant of WASBO, which made it difficult to run office logistics - a draw back on its own. She thus encouraged the new committee to market WASBO and look for sponsors to grow women and girls football. She appreciated the increase of numbers of women coaches in football, who had been trained and certified by Botswana Football Association, adding that such had great potential to empower women and girls in sport.

In her acceptance speech, Shadikong promised to take WASBO to another level and work closely with SVM to grow women and girls in sports. Working collectively with her team, she pledged to deliver results, which she said would be international quality sport women and girls across all sporting codes. Ends