The team led by Ruben Reddy has covered Gaborone, Lobatse, Francistown, Maun and its final destination is Kasane, which will be visited this week. Reddy said after Kasane, sites visits will be over and they will look at the gap between CAF compliance and what is on the ground. “We have done audit in all the sites, we will then come up with a report so that the gap is clear for everyone to see. We will attach cost to it so that the government and various ministries are aware of what funding is needed to meet those requirements. We will then visit Namibia and that will complete our task with the joint bid,” he said.
Reddy also said the existing gap is not a challenge because there is still time for that to be fixed. He said for now he could not state the cost until the report has been completed. He said there were gaps even in other countries that hosted major competitions like FIFA 2010 World Cup in South Africa. “From my experience I do not think we are dealing with impossibility here, it is possible. There are always state controlled procurement systems, those systems are run by people and that can be changed,” he said. For his part, Botswana and Namibia Bid Committee (BidCo) chairman, Ashford Mamelodi said it was impossible for Botswana or Namibia to host AFCON alone due to cost. He said even CAF encourages co-hosting especially by smaller countries.
He said if the two governments agree on the costs, have the appetite to go forward, they can compete with other countries as long as they meet the minimum requirements. He said the other important thing is that they do not want the facilities to remain white elephants after the tournament. “I am happy that the facilities audit had taken off. The facilities audit is what will tell us the enormity of the creature we are dealing with and result in decisions being made at the right level. The earlier we have the findings of the audit, the better for us. Our governments do not have the luxury of time,” Mamelodi said.
He said the job of BidCo is to come up with a bid book. He said there is no time, even the facilities audit started late and if they are not careful, the bid will pass by. The report is expected to be handed over before end of March 2023. On Friday, the team together with BidCo met with different stakeholders such as Ministry of Health, Department of Broadcasting Services, Botswana Power Corporation, Tourism, Civil Aviation and Department of Telecommunications and Postal Services.
