East Africa’s bid book ‘masterstroke’

Mqondisi Dube | Saturday October 28, 2023 06:00

Botswana lost out to the joint bid commonly known as PAMOJA, a Swahili word which means together. The collaborative bid was reportedly cost-effective, with the figure put at just over P10 million for the campaign to win the rights to host the 2027 competition.

Botswana went all out, with a P61 million bid book driving costs up after authorities engaged a South African consultant, Ruben Reddy to put together the 569-page document.

However, the astronomical effort was not enough to convince the CAF executive members who opted for the PAMOJA bid instead. “We did all the work we did in the PAMOJA bid with no government vote,” Rogers Byamukama, a member of the PAMOJA bid team told Uganda’s weekly, The Observer.

Byamukama said there were discussions within their bid committee regarding engaging a consultant to produce the bid book. However, due to prohibitive costs, they opted against the move.

Instead, technocrats within the bid committee were tasked with producing the bid document. “We were careful not to pursue the bidding at a high cost because we didn’t have the money, yet we wanted to convince the CAF executive that we were ready, along with our East African brothers and sisters,” he said. “We actually operated on monies from the federation coffers and tried to get the most we could in how we lobbied for our position together with our counterparts,” Byamukama added.

While the East Africans rejoiced at the CAF announcement, there was disappointment for Botswana, with Minister of Youth, Sport, Gender and Culture, Tumiso Rakgare arguing the continental football body shifted goalposts. However, Botswana, with a population of just above two million compared to the combined 300 million of the East African countries, was always going to be a factor for CAF, eager to derive maximum revenues from its flagship competition.