The BNSC recently completed the National Sport Associations Resource Allocation Scheme (BONSARS) for the financial year 2024-2025, which saw table tennis and tennis emerge as the biggest beneficiaries. Speaking to MmegiSport, the BNSC manager-sport development administration, Kealeboga Keitseng, said the objective of BONSARS, introduced in 2021, is to categorise NSAs into four different tiers. “Tier one is the highest and tier four is the lowest. In BONSARS, we have a contextual framework in terms of our legal basis for coming up with the criteria within the model. We take the framework from Botswana’s Vision 2036, BNSC Vision 2028, and we took some elements from the BNSC 2010 Affiliates Empowerment Policy. In 2010, there was another policy that was used to categorise sporting associations. We also included some elements from the BNSC Act of 2014. The model as it is, was piloted during the 2021-2022 financial year,” he said.
Keitseng said the system was also used in the last financial year and the BNSC Board has approved the model. He said the model has thematic areas such as contribution to sport, the economy, improving athletes' performance, increasing high profile events hosting, increasing participation, increasing national pride, impact and improving administration. “When we talk to NSAs, we sit down with them and highlight that the thematic areas have criteria that we mark sport associations against. For assessment, the NSAs will score themselves in terms of the current level where they look at the criteria and they give themselves scores. This is accompanied by evidence,” he said. Keitseng said when the model was introduced, the NSAs questioned some issues as it was a new system. The codes were inducted to iron out any outstanding queries.
Keitseng said one major thematic area is improving athletes’ performance and within it, there are international rankings, medals for professional athletes, external scholarships for athletes, and team or Olympic bonus points. Regarding grant allocations, Keitseng said the process has been completed internally in terms of the allocation of funds and they have started communicating with NSAs about their allocations. In gaining promotion to tier one, table tennis and tennis join football, athletics, cricket, and volleyball. Basketball, badminton, and judo have been elevated to tier two joining boxing, BOTESSA (Botswana Tertiary Student Sports Association), rugby, golf, netball, chess, swimming, bowling, karate, PASSOBO (Paralympics Association of Botswana), and softball. Horse Society and taekwondo moved up to tier three joining cycling, Special Olympics, motorsport, and professional boxing. Wrestling, darts, squash, cheerleading, hockey, fencing, dance, handball, weightlifting, parachute, bridge and traditional games are in the bottom tier.
Tennis president, Oaitse Thipe, was naturally elated at the sport's elevation to tier one. “Six weeks of international tennis tournaments hosted annually, various coaches education courses around the year, maintaining our facility, the secretariat that includes wheelchair tennis coach, junior tennis coaches, ongoing development programmes at various locations around the country. We also have national teams competing from Under 12, 14, 16, 18, and senior team,” he said. Thipe said unfortunately they are not aware of how much they will be getting as a grant. He said this year they have planned eight weeks of international tennis tournaments that include a CAT/ITF continental Under-14 tournament. He said they are resurfacing their courts starting this week, as they prepare for the Davis Cup. “The Davis Cup will attract 15 countries and is expected to contribute about P2 million to the economy,” Thipe said.
For his part, table tennis president, Kudzanani Motswagole, said they are excited about being elevated to tier one. “We are humbled by the breakthrough because surely we are all aware that we have proven beyond reasonable doubt that this is a result of hard work. Obviously, there will be increased funding for innovation and administration but for us, it is an opportunity to spread our wings in the country and increase the number of athletes through deliberate grassroots programmes,” Motswagole said.
