He returns with some deliverables that he failed to achieve in the first term still bobbling in his mind. Some of the thorny issues facing Morule include budget cuts for National Sport Associations (NSA), resumption of school sport, the absence of Botswana Games, the NSAs infightings and others.
Morule told MmegiSport that getting another opportunity to lead the board is an indication that Minister Tumiso Rakgare trusts him and that means a lot. “The first term was a learning curve. Decision-making is an art, it takes time, being given this opportunity means we should continue with things which were in the planning stage.
One of the things is about leadership starting from the board itself to NSAs. "We must have one vision, which is for everyone to the play sport. We have athletes who are excelling such as Letsile Tebogo. It is all about the hard work that was put in before. We should find ways and means to play sport,” he said.
Morule said it is almost five years without school sport, meaning the channel that has been bringing in talent is about to dry up. He said if children are not playing sport in schools, there should be a way to allow them to play sport. He said there should be processes to make that happen.
However, he said the issue of school sport is beyond the BNSC board. “I will be punching above my weight if I can try to put my head on the block regarding school sport. It is at a level where our ministry is consulting other ministries and unions. "I can put my head on the block on how the BNSC and MYSC can assist the NSAs to go back to grassroots development. If it can be done outside schools, we will have to consider it. The decision of school sport right now is beyond us, if it was not beyond us, we were almost ready to start last year. We had the money to facilitate the resumption of school sport,” he said.
Regarding the Botswana Games, Morule said they should strengthen their relationship with the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development and the Ministry of Basic Education and Skills Development on how they can have the Games, which are not dependent on school sport. “What we learnt as a board in the last four years, we can now put in motion in the next four years. In my first term, my wish was to see this country exporting sport leaders and administrators, but that I do not only mean from the technical. I mean also we must have Batswana working for international federations such as FIFA and CAF.
I also wished to see a revised Botswana Games, it should be one of the premier events where we identify talent which also comes from schools. Unfortunately, that coincided with the suspension of school sport in government schools. We need to shift, if we are not playing sport in schools, the NSAs should be empowered,” he said. Morule explained that being empowered does not mean increasing grants, but they must be able to make decisions, lead, and seek sponsorship, which is not always in cash, but can be in kind. He said if NSAs are empowered, they can assist athletes to seek other opportunities outside Botswana.
“Sport should be looked at as an industry that can bring change to this country. We cannot look away from the general indiscipline amongst us as sport. Sport itself must bring the culture of discipline. So without that, we will not go far,” he said. Meanwhile, Morule said one of the critical things in the Sport Act yet to be debated in Parliament is that all the NSAs should only affiliate with the Botswana National Olympic Committee (BNOC). He said in that way, there will be one structure overseeing the development of sport. Morule said that will allow the BNSC to regulate the funding that comes from government and be able to distribute it to the BNOC. “As a way of recommendation, is that we were hoping that we would be starting with us, in order to stagger the appointment of the Board going forward immediately after the Act is in place.
We wanted to come up with a model to combine the BNSC and the BNOC but I always said that was impossible due to the way they are structured,” Morule said. Currently, the NSAs affiliate to both the BNSC and the BNOC. The BNSC board members: Tebogo Lebotse-Sebego (vice-chairperson), Colonel Botsang Tshenyego (BNOC president), Tebogo Tshenyo (PASSOBO), Lopang Pule (Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development), Steve Bothasitse (Ministry of Basic Education), Tshepo Mophuting (MYSC), and Keenese Katisenge-Tizhani. NSAs representatives: Katlholo Mosimanegape and Mmaneke Ntebo Maplanka.
