Speaking to MmegiSport yesterday, the Minister of Youth, Sport, Gender and Culture, Tumiso Rakgare, said there were appearance fees paid to the players. He said the players are the ones who decided on the arrangements. However, Rakgare said the government had committed some money as the South Africans could not just come to Botswana for free. “We wanted Batswana to appreciate Doctor Khumalo, Diphetogo Selolwane and other legends seeing them on the field. We had to appreciate them in a way. Even though I have the figures of how much each player was paid, I cannot reveal them because it was their own agreement,” he said.
Rakgare said the players received payment that they had never gotten during such games before. He, however, denied claims that each player received P70, 000 as per reports. There are critics that the Independence Day window could have been better utilised to prepare the Zebras for their upcoming game against Cape Verde. Rakgare said they spent less than what they usually use for the Zebras game, which is around P1.5 million. “The main reason I was pushing for this game was because South African legends are regarded as icons at their previous clubs. They have influence and can influence local players to play for South African clubs. We wanted to forge relations with South African clubs,” he said.
Rakgare said the Zebras legends have been there, paved the way for the current footballers, and sacrificed for Botswana but were not properly rewarded. “They fought hard for the football of this country to reach the current level. That is why we decided to have a legends match not the usual Zebras playing. The money we spent in preparation for this game is less than what we normally spend when preparing for the Zebras Independence games because we usually fly in the other teams. South Africa flew in, but preparations were not as cumbersome as when Zebras are playing,” he said. Rakgare said the Zebras are a national team, like recently when they played in Mauritania, when he released P3 million for a charter flight to Francistown, unfortunately some people slept on the job. “As a minister, I could not be seen running with flight tickets and invoices,” he added.
