Mascom to the rescue of Tokyo 2020 team

Calistus Kolantsho | Friday January 24, 2020 13:53

BNOC introduced various initiatives to raise funds for the team including the 16789 SMS campaign, meant to lobby support from the public to donate towards the team’s preparations.

Mascom chief executive officer, Dzene Makhwade-Seboni said the communications company has taken a decision to forgo the revenue share due to Mascom from the P5 donation. She said Mascom share would be redeemed to Team Botswana.

“From today, Mascom would utilise our ColMeBack service messaging to send a call to action message that reminds customers to SMS 16789 to support Team Botswana. This initiative and related updates would continue until the team leaves for Tokyo,” she said. Makhwade- Seboni said Mascom would use some of their channels to profile Team Botswana and assist the BNOC in creating the hype, which they hope would get more individuals and private sector to support the team.

“The BNOC has advised us that they plan to host a fundraising gala dinner for Team Botswana and that proceeds from this dinner would go directly to the team preparation costs. Mascom is delighted to make a pledge of P200, 000 to the team as part of the gala dinner fundraising,” Makhwade- Seboni said.

She said they are confident that the Tokyo 2020 dream is attainable. For his part, BNOC chairperson, Colonel Botsang Tshenyego said with 183 days left before the summer games, it is still an uphill battle for more athletes to qualify. At the moment only Galefele Moroko, Nijel Amos and Christine Botlogetswe have qualified.

“While the government has released funds towards the team preparations, more resources are needed to prepare a strong Olympic team. For 2020, BNOC has set herself a target to raise P3.5 million to supplement government funding,” he said. Tshenyego said athletes require decent accommodation to stay in as they train and compete locally and abroad, transport to attend training and competition sessions locally and abroad. Other costs are for training equipment, attire and medical attention.

Tshenyego said the uptake of the SMS donation campaign, launched last year, has been slow.

“We are grateful to Mascom for forgoing the revenue sharing as one of the mobile partners, allocating ColMe tags to send reminders to subscribers to donate towards team preparations,” he said.

Tshenyego said the gala dinner is planned for March and they have set a target of P1million from the dinner proceeds.