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BNOC,BNSC MERGER INEVITABLE

Back in 2011, a task team was formed to advise government on how sport could be moved forward and it recommended the merging of Botswana National Sport Commission (BNSC) and Botswana National Olympic Committee (BNOC).

The team comprised of the then director of sport and recreation Falcon Sedimo, former Botswana National Sport Commission (BNSC) chief executive officer, Kitso Kemoen and Botswana National Olympic Committee (BNOC) chief executive officer, Tuelo Serufho.

The task team recommendated the merging of BNSC and BNOC in order to take Botswana sport to greater heights.

However, the merger did not take place despite that some former sport ministers amongst them Shaw Kgathi and Thapelo Olopeng were vocal and passionate about it.

The current Minister of Youth Empowerment, Sport and Culture Development, Tumiso Rakgare has joined the chorus to ensure that the two sport organisations are merged.

In an exclusive interview, Rakgare said it was just a matter of time before the two organisations were merged, adding that sports leaders have an ‘appetite’ for a single sport structure in the country.

“I want two key things to happen before I vacate this ministry,” he said.

The first, he said, was to merge the two organisations. He added that he had had an opportunity to address the BNSC board during their induction.

He said he made it clear that both BNOC and BNSC must find each other.

“I would have failed Botswana sport if the merger did not happen, and I am going to make sure that it happens. That is the assurance that I can give you,” he said.

Rakgare’s contention is that it does not help to have two organisations with similar structures all funded by government.

‘You have BNOC and BNSC and they have their own staff, communications team and the CEO’s and they are paid, and this money is from government coffers. On the other side you have this other bodies and they are affiliated to BNSC and BNOC. We cannot continue like this,” he said.

Furthermore, Minister Rakgare said he was happy that the affiliates had a position regarding the merger. He noted that consultations had already started for Botswana sport to realise its dream of merging.

“In every cloud there is always a silver lining. You must look at things broadly, if you remember well in February there was a trip to the United Kingdom, and it was unprecedented for the minister to travel with the president of BNOC and the chairperson of BNSC. I did that deliberately because I wanted us to have a chat with both of them,” he said.

The minister said part of the reason why they had Marumo Morule as the BNSC chair was because he had over 20 years experience with BNOC and understood the need for a merger.

He said Morule was one of the sport administrors who was clear about the issue of merging the two organisations.

Rakgare said the advantage of a merger was that it would save costs and give the sporting body independence.

On saving costs, he said BNOC was renting offices and that the money could be used on grassroots development.

On independence, he said although it would take the nomination right of the minister to appoint the BNSC chair, by international Olympic committee guidelines, he said that was not an issue to him, because he was confident that, Botswana had astute administrators who would be able to manage Botswana sports.

He said he was confident that leaders in sports were competent to nominate a person to run Botswana sports.

“If you have BNSC with a clear mandate that the focus is development and BNOC with a mandate for elite sports there is confusion about who has the right mandate because there is no clear focus. We are going to have people focusing on what they are supposed to do,” he said.

On other issues, Rakgare said his aim was to see Botswana with all its resources and expertise being able to host the Africa Cup of Nations in 2027.

“In being able to host we only need one stadium and we have three stadiums, Lobatse Francistown and Gaborone so far, which are world class and they can do it for us. We can also co-host with countries such as Namibia,” he said. BOPA

 

 

 

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