The rewards package was first introduced in 2012 and was recently reviewed to cover junior national teams. According to the policy, appearance fees are paid for official competitions.
But there are still grey areas with the lawn bowls team's request for appearances fees rejected by the Botswana National Sport Commission (BNSC). The team had Marea Modutlwa and Remmy Kebapetse who competed at the World Indoor Championships in April, while Modutlwa and Edwin Nyoke took part in the World Champion of Champions.
The softball senior women’s team that competed in the recent World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) Africa qualifiers has not been paid appearance fees. The boxing team suffered the same fate after competing at the 2022 African Amateur Boxing Championships. Table tennis players Phetso Jack and Tshepiso Rebatenne participated at the World Table Tennis Contender Series tournament in Durban, but they too, were not paid appearance fees.
The Botswana Volleyball Federation (BVF) president, Tsoseletso Magang said their concerns led to the BNSC calling a Special General Meeting (SGM) recently. “The BNSC secretariat is struggling to interpret the incentives policy. They confuse appearance fee and incentives fee. Being selected into the national team you are paid appearance fees while incentives are based on performance.
But for the secretariat, their uptake is always all over the place,” she said. Magang said in some instances the BNSC argues that at least eight countries should be in a certain competition, citing that even at netball there are about seven countries in Africa. She said if all those countries come for a competition, it means netball players will never get appearance fees.
She said the same thing applies to other NSAs. “It is a good thing that the BNSC board chairperson, Marumo Morule acknowledges that the policy that they came up with was from benchmarking. There was no consultation and that is what kills a lot of initiatives. They did not consult people who run sport. You find that people who have never run sport, were sent to benchmark and take decisions on how the policy is tailored,” Magang said. She said it was a welcome development that something is being done about the policy.
Magang said national team incentives are also meant to motivate upcoming athletes. “If we do not do it right, who is it meant for? It is common knowledge that when teams go for competitions, their allowances are always way below of the officials, even BNSC staff that travels with them. They are given more money than athletes and you wonder about their role. At the games it is about being in the field of play. Athletes are treated as babies despite being in the senior national team where they should be making a living out of that,” she said.
Magang argued that national team players still seek permission from their employers unlike in other countries where they focus on sport. She said with a policy that is being handled by people who are unable to interpret it, which means Botswana still lags behind. The Botswana Cycling Association (BCA) president, Kagiso Potongwane said the positive thing from the revised policy is the inclusion of junior teams. “However, the eligibility criteria of having a minimum number of participating countries is limiting due to the diverse nature of sporting codes.
Some codes generally have less participation which results in less number of countries participating,” he said. The Botswana Netball Association (BONA) public relations officer, Mokeresete Mokeresete said the World Netball (WN) has very few affiliates and Africa Netball has about 21 affiliates. He said in African competitions, the highest number of countries that they can get is around nine. “Also the structure of WN has limited numbers for competing countries. Commonwealth Games is 12 countries, World Cup is 16 and Netball Youth World Cup is 20 countries. So generally to have the expected number of countries to qualify for appearance fees will then remain a far-fetched dream until the numbers required to qualify for appearance fees are aligned to the nature of the competitions per sport code,” Mokeresete said. For her part, the Botswana Table Tennis Association (BTTA) spokesperson, Tshegofatso Malepa said appearance fees should be paid regardless of how many countries are in attendance.
“That will attract more athletes to the game more especially for first time participants. It will give them courage to perform better,” she said. The BNSC chief executive officer (CEO), Tuelo Serufho confirmed to Mmegi Sport that NSAs have approached the Commission about appearance fees. “Appearance fee policy is from Ministry of Youth, Gender, Sport and Culture (MYSC).
They decided on what they could afford. We noted concerns raised by NSAs. At the moment we are in discussion to compile the request with valid reasons that can convince the ministry,” he said. Serufho said the ministry will be reminded that many countries do not play some sporting codes. He said even the amount set for appearance fees should be improved. He said the request would be submitted soon.
Regarding the BNSC budget cut, Serufho said it will have a ripple effect at the bottom. The budget is expected to be reduced from P116million to P114million in the 2022/2023 financial year. “All along NSAs have been receiving lower grants and that affects development.
It is time for local sport, starting at the Commission, to find a different path of finding money. In Southern Africa, Botswana sport receives better grants than other countries. However, in other countries they have a culture of supporting sport including development of infrastructure. We should stop depending on the government,” he said.
