The trio of basketball umpire, Dorothy ‘Dot’ Okatch, Botswana Netball Association secretary-general, Kelebogile Maplanka, and her president, Malebo Raditladi-Nkgakile have received appointments to international assignments.
World Netball has announced Maplanka as part of the international technical officials for the Netball World Cup 2023 slated for Cape Town, where she will work as a statistician. “I am humbled by this appointment.
I mean to do statistics for such a huge netball event is such an honour. The inclusion of the Champion Data programme in these games marks a new development for Africa.
To be part of the World Cup and especially part of the new programme that defines the feedback to teams performance is such a milestone for me,” she said. Maplanka said Botswana Netball Association is privileged, because its secretary-general is one of the three from Africa to make it through to the final list of the World Cup. “This will provide a much-needed capacity building, which will be cascaded accordingly.
The Quad series that was held in January was the final training assessment to name those to be appointed officially by World Netball,” she said. Maplanka said Botswana has amazing gifted individuals who can take the country’s sport to greater heights, all that is needed is collaboration, development, and support from all stakeholders.
Raditladi-Nkgakile will be the safeguarding and welfare officer at the World Cup. Meanwhile, Okatch said she has been engaged in two competitions that will be happening concurrently. She said it is the qualifiers for Zone VI for women’s Afrobasket and men’s qualifiers for the Afrocan formerly Afrobasket. The games will be played from February 22 to 28 in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe. “International Basketball Federation (FIBA) has selected a number of referees for this competition from Southern, North, East, and West Africa.
My assumption is, this is based on the previous performance of the referee and the level of the competition,” she said. Okatch said being appointed means the world to her and for a woman to be nominated in a male competition, is a testament to what women can do on the court. “Also, since FIBA has been committed to women empowerment, being one of the few women referees in men's competitions make me feel absolutely proud of my skill,” she added. In 2022, Okatch officiated at the Basketball Africa League Nile conference in Egypt, the Commonwealth Games, the Under 23 Nations League in Egypt, the Under 23 Nations League final in Romania, Zone V club championships in Tanzania (crew chief in the final), 3x3 Africa cup in Egypt (she did the men’s final), and Africa women’s champions cup in Mozambique in charge of the finals.
“So far for this year I am booked for the BAL-Sahara conference in Senegal and I will be in Germany for the Special Olympics World Games. Others will come along the way,” Okatch said. She said it has not been an easy journey, as being a basketball referee requires physical fitness and they get tested on it constantly.
