- Grants should have been disbursed in April
- Some NSAs have suspended programmes
GAZETTE REPORTER
National Sports Associations (NSAs) are yet to receive their annual funding from the Botswana National Sports Commission (BNSC), which usually disburses the grants at the beginning of the government’s financial year on 1st April.
The money is critical for NSAs to carry out their programmes and operational activities such as hosting and attending tournaments, travel, and training workshops for athletes and technical officials, among others.
Speaking at the Annual General Meeting (AGM) of Botswana Boxing Association (BOBA) in Gaborone over the weekend, BOBA president Gilbert Khunwane said the delay has caused them a major setback.
Hardships
“The 2023 season has been challenging,” he said. “As you may have noticed, we have played only two interclub tournaments due to funding challenges because the association has not received its annual grant for 2023/24 from our mother body, BNSC.
“Let me thank all of you, BoBA family and Glen Valley Boxing Club, for having seen it fit to host the last interclub tournament under current hardships.
“As you may have noticed, we were supposed to have our Ordinary General Assembly around October last year.”
Not clear
The president of Botswana Basketball Association (BBA), Boineelo Hardy, has also confirmed that they have not received their annual grant.
“We have not received any funds from the BNSC this year and the communication is not clear on the issue,” she said in an interview.
“Our programmes and projects need money to carry out but we have stopped everything at BBA because there is no money. We need to prioritise sports if we are to grow competitively.”
AFCON
One sports administrator who preferred to remain anonymous said they are shocked by the way the sports ministry and BNSC have been splashing money on events so far but still have not disbursed grants to NSAs.
“We have seen them spend on the recent athletics event and they have already committed to hosting the Africa Cup of Nations if they win the bid,” said the administrator.
“They have paid lots of money for the bid book while we suffer and athletes lose interest in their respective sports because there are no activities. It is sad.”