LETLHOGILE MPUANG
Newly elected Botswana Softball Association (BSA) President Thabo Thamane has revealed that top of his priority list is to improve and develop playing infrastructure in order to create a conducive environment for all stakeholders.
Thamane who is Chief Executive Officer at Citizen Entrepreneurial Development Agency (CEDA) replaced Tirelo Mukokomani at the helm of local softball after successfully defeating Katlholo Mosimanegape at an elective Annual General Meeting (AGM) held this past weekend in Palapye. He gathered 17 votes, whilst his rival (Mosimanegape) managed 8 votes.
The new President takes over from his predecessor Mukokomani who served as head of BSA for the last six years. In an interview with Gazette Sport yesterday (Monday), Thamane openly expressed his delight on his new appointment, but stated that he has already hit the ground running.
“I must first start by thanking everyone who showed faith in me and I promise to commit my full efforts in this course. It was the first time in the history of the BSA that the elections had attracted this much interest, but it was mostly to the fact that many were surprised to see a captain of the industry like myself to take up such an endeavor,” the CEDA boss told Gazette Sport.
“We have already started working, and we are meeting with the newly elected members of the executive committee soon. I am also set to meet with the BNOC and BNSC this week, where we will lay down our plan and what we intend to achieve as the new committee,” he added.
Thamane continued to say one of his key areas of concern is the state of fields of play in the country, and his intention is to see to the development and refurbishing of these fields.
“We want to make the environment conducive for all our stakeholders, the pitches should be in good conditions for players to do well, and stadiums should also be in good conditions to ensure the the safety of supporters, and we need to improve in this aspect. I am told that the BSA gets a grant of around P800 000 from the Botswana National Sports Commission (BNSC), and it is not even enough to help,’’ added the new BSA head.
In conclusion, he revealed that he also intends to deal with economic inequality amongst local teams.
“One other thing we are targeting is the economic inequality we have amongst our teams, we will soon be having talks with our clubs in relation to the matter, followed up with another meeting with our sponsors. Our plan is to make softball great again,” ended Thamane.