Gazette Reporter
The newly elected Botswana National Olympics Committee (BNOC) President Colonel Botsang Tshenyego is of the view that he has what it takes to lead the organisation for the next four years after he retained his position as the President of BNOC over the weekend. He won against his opponents, Ookeditse Malesu and Tirelo Mukokomani who posed a serious threat prior to the elections through their stern campaigns.
Col. Tshenyego was voted by 14 national associations beating his rivals with a huge margin, followed by Mukokomani who garnered only 6 votes and Malesu with 5 votes. He will be assisted by Tshepo Sitale who retained his position as the senior vice president against Thari Mooketsi where as Mthandazo Michael Moroka won the 1st vice president position against Patrick Moesi. Botswana Basketball Association (BBA) President Boineelo Hardy won the 2nd vice president position after beating Tiny Kgatlwane by 19 votes to 4. Yarona Sharp and Tebo Segaise retained their positions as additional members, and they were joined by Unaswi Matebu who is the Botswana Hockey Association (BHA) president to complete the 7 men Board of Directors that will lead Botswana to the Paris 2024 Olympics.
In a post elections interview, Tshenyego said he believes that every person including national sports associations presidents and secretary generals should be given a second chance provided they demonstrate that in their first term they tried to do something viable. “I want to believe that people should be given a second chance especially when they show their capability, change must happen but not just for the sake of change, there must be a need to change where it is due. I also want to thank those who stood for elections especially the two sport giants that were standing against me and I believe that they also have value that they can add into the growth of sport in Botswana. The winner obviously is Sport, and we are going to work as a team, we uphold the values of olympism first being friendship. I am not going to disappoint; I will be working with stakeholders in all the projects that we are currently working on,” he said.
He further applauded the victory of women who dominate the board with a total of 4 individual who makes it 57% representation of women for the first time ever in the history of Botswana Sports which is a massive growth as compared to 43% in 2017. “I am happy to have these women in my team and their representation should be reflected in our structures and commissions, that’s something that the next generation of leaders will inherit in future. I am happy about this women empowerment I am seeing, and we are ready to take sport to greater heights. We are going to establish lots of programs that will have a massive impact in development, and we will work hard to add value,” Tshenyego added.
For his part Mokokomani said he is not lost to sport and he will continue his mandate to serve in the World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) Board and he is happy that the associations made the decision that they believe it was good for them even though he is a bit disappointed with the outcome. Malesu was not available for comment after suffering two consecutive losses in the position of president in 2017 and 2021.
Botswana through BNOC is set to start the preparations for the next year’s Commonwealth games set for Birmingham, England as well as the 2024 Olympics billed for Paris, France through their solidarity programs among others.