BAA President frustrated by BNSC interference

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  • They don’t want me as President – Mooketsi 
  • Mooketsi undecided on seeking re-election
  • BAA Executive Committee elections set for next June

LETLHOGILE MPUANG

Botswana Athletics Association (BAA) President Thari Mooketsi says he is undecided on whether he will seek for re-election during next year’s BAA Executive Committee elections as he is ‘frustrated’ as a result of the constant interference by the Botswana National Sports Commission (BNSC).

Mooketsi was voted in as BAA President last year April, where he was unopposed for the position, replacing former President Moses Bantsi.

In  an interview with Gazette Sport, Mooketsi revealed his frustrations which he claims are some of the reasons for the little progress made during his tenure as head of BAA.

“I am left with six months as President, am not sure yet if I will be standing again. I am simply tired. There is just a lot that is happening here that is disturbing the development of the sport, and  I have not been able to do my intentions, because of all these petty fights,” said Mooketsi.

“There are just too many fights, and they are not coming from within the Executive Committee. Since I came in as President, its all been fights, it looks there are some people who want to push me, just like you read in the papers that we might be in trouble because we set up an LOC without the input of the BNSC, I mean, do we have to be fighting over such,” questioned the BAA President.

Mooketsi said it is for such reasons why he assumes that maybe the BNSC wants to dictate on who should be the BAA President.

“From what I see, it is like BNSC wants to have a say on who they want as BAA President, maybe someone who they can control, but I will not allow that. I know for a fact that there are some people who are being poached to stand for elections,” he reiterated.

Meanwhile, Mooketsi told this publication that the recent visit by IAAF President  Sebastian Coe was a huge success and will go a long in benefiting athletics, not just in Botswana, but even regionally. He revealed that the IAAF have given them the green-light to engage the Confederation of African Athletics(CAA) over assisting with funds to finance the erecting of a high performance centre in Gaborone.

“His visit was to come and appreciate and understand some of our challenges and how best they can assist us as the IAAF, it was a very fruitful visit and we believe it will better the lives of our athletes, not just Botswana but regionally. We want to build our own facility, we are still requesting for land from the BNSC to build the facility which will be a centre of excellence for the rest of Southern Africa.

We will be having a regional meeting with the rest of our Southern African countries, and we want to use that platform to lobby them to support our bid to build this centre of excellence,” concluded Mooketsi.