- MoE won’t let Dube go on leave to help prepare for event
- LOC holds that event is for Dube’s personal benefit
- Gripe strong that Dube hoards the limelight
GAZETTE REPORTER
Preparations for the highly anticipated athletics event, the Botswana Golden Grand Prix, are mired in controversy and as the Local Organising Committee (LOC) bickers over management and administration issues in which a groundswell of anti Dube sentiments features prominently and faces resignation of the Chief Organiser.
This comes after the founder of the event, Glody Dube, was denied leave from his daytime job as a teacher to enable him to focus on preps for the historic event that is slated for the National Stadium in Gaborone on 29 April 2023.
The highly decorated athlete is the Chief Organiser and may resign from the LOC if a meeting set for tonight does not find a way out of the snag.
World Athletics standards
Dube has threatened to resign from the LOC if he is not going to be released from his regular job also because he wants to ensure that Botswana meets standards of World Athletics that it undertook to when the event, formerly known as Gaborone International Meet (GIM), was granted gold status recently.
Petty questions
However, sources say his employer, the Ministry of Education, may have joined the fray on the side of the anti Dube brigade because it also holds that the event is for personal gain and will not benefit the nation in any way.
Information reaching Gazette Sports is that the Chairman of the LOC, Geoff Gare, is allegedly conniving with certain individuals at Botswana Athletics Association (BAA) to frustrate Dube because he wants to run the show for personal glory and gain. “BAA is of the view that they are sidelined as the custodian of athletics in Botswana,” a source told Gazette Sports.
“They say Dube overshadows them and is getting all the recognition from World Athletics. A certain individual at BAA has been feeding the LOC chairman with misleading and false information that Dube wants to personally gain from the funds allocated for this event by World Athletics. As a result, Gare is always asking petty questions in LOC meetings and has moved to oust Dube from involvement in the event.
Malicious campaign
“Dube is a frustrated man as we speak because everyone, including the Ministry of Youth, Gender, Sports and Culture and the Ministry of Education, have turned their backs on him because of the malicious campaign against him by certain individuals at BAA.”
Allegations are that the anti Dube brigade is so serious that preparations have been on hold while World Athletics is demanding progress reports from the LOC, especially from Dube as an experienced athlete.
For his part, Dube has expressed displeasure with the way BAA and the government are handling the situation. “I confirm that I was denied leave to run this event,” he told Gazette Sports. “I am really puzzled because I have always been granted leave to organise events in previous years.
Standstill
“The response from my employers, the Ministry of Education, is that they won’t let me go on leave for this event because it is for my personal gain.
“They won’t even let me go on unpaid leave. World Athletics has entrusted me with the event because of its magnitude and for the reason that they know that I understand athletics matters better. Right now the preparations are at a standstill.”
Dube has asked sports leaders to a meeting that is set to take place Wednesday evening (tonight) in order to try and map a way out of the snag and then go on with the preparations.