“Our attention continues to be drawn to developments some of which border on indiscipline and arrogance where those who are supposed to lead our sporting bodies now take positions of kings and queens, running those bodies as personal properties,” he said.
Kemoeng said they are following these activities with keen interest and for now they are leaving the issue to the Botswana National Sport Commission (BNSC) to prevail on them. He said if some of the activities were allowed to grow and fester, they would damage the good name of Botswana sport. Kemoeng said he was deliberately being general on sport instability because he did not want to single out specific affiliates for mention or attack. “Our time will come to roll up our sleeves once we are called upon to do so by the BNSC.
We will roll up our sleeves and tackle delinquency. If we believe the BNSC is also playing truant, we will roll up our sleeves and tackle them. As of now, we do not have any reason to intervene or interfere,” he warned. Kemoeng said he was raising the issues because they are a concern to the ministry. Meanwhile, Kemoeng said community sports facilities project commenced during the 2018-2019 financial year, with the acquisition of land at 10 localities identified for the project. “Construction of the nine facilities has commenced and two (Bobonong and Moshupa) are expected to be completed by March next year.
The other seven projects are at various stages. A total of P71 million has been committed to these facilities at the end of the 2021-22 financial year. A further P17 million has been made available for the project during the current financial year,” he said. On other issues, Kemoeng said the Constituency league has been reinstated with some alterations. He said the revised programme commenced last month.
“The new programme has two stages instead of the original four. The regional and national levels have been eliminated from the programme with only the ward and constituency levels remaining.
The format of the ward level has been altered to follow a league model instead of knock-out,” he said. Kemoeng said this would allow teams to stay in the programme longer. He said the prize money has been adjusted and teams in positions four up to six will get consolation prizes at ward level, which is an improvement from the original programme where prize monies were only awarded up to position three.
He said the ministry is actively considering ways in which the programme could add more value to the nation. “It is not a useless programme as some people make us believe. It is a useful programme,” Kemoeng said.
