Africa-Press – Botswana. The Botswana Integrated Sports Association (BISA) leadership’s request to stay in office despite their term having expired last year December has reportedly been shot down by the general membership.
The decision to reject the request was taken during a recent Special General Meeting (SGM). The executive committee wanted to request delegates to continue in office until December in order to assist Ministry of Youth, Gender, Sport and Culture Development (MYGSC) and Botswana National Sport Commission (BNSC) to prepare for the formation of a joint school sport body and also to facilitate the resumption of school sport.
According to information reaching Mmegi Sport, the delegates voted against the request by the BISA executive. The delegates called for an AGM instead of a SGM in order to discuss and resolve issues within the association. The suspension of BISA treasurer, Tapiwa Kengaletswe was brought up only to be shot down by the executive as it was not part of the agenda of the SGM. The delegates were also addressed by BNSC and MYGSC.
“The MYGSC-BNSC meeting was an address on the model to be used to resume sport in schools, particularly highlighting that there shall be no competitions in schools and amongst schools within the 10 MoESD (education ministry) regions but only a timetabled sport activity within the teaching and learning period,” read the minutes from the SGM.
The meeting also resolved that only selections of outstanding athletes shall be done at zonal, regional and national finals for both athletics and balls games. That athletics and balls games were to resume in schools on May 16.
During the deliberations, BISA delegates asked MYGSC and BNSC to consult further and engage all stakeholders on the model, to engage trade unions on the issue of remuneration and conditions of service. BNSC and MYGSC were requested to further consult and engage the Ministry of Education and Skills Development on the role schools will play on the resumption of school sport as it was evident that schools were left out. BNSC and MYGSC are to consult further and assist to iron out the issue of a timetabled physical activity as opposed to full time sport activity.
BISA public relations officer, Letsweletse Jonas said their mandate, which expired last year was disrupted by the pandemic.
“We were affected by COVID-19 just like other associations. Now we are trying to put our things in order and head for elections. But there is this issue of transition that we do not know what it brings. When we go for elections, we do not know what will happen,” he said.
Jonas said they asked for clarity on what they should do. He said there was confusion during the SGM as delegates felt unfairly treated.
“During the meeting, no decision was taken if the executive committee should continue being in office or not. If you say we should not continue, they should put someone in place but nobody was put in office. It was agreed that other items should not be discussed until we hear from the BNSC,” he said.
Jonas said there was no voting and if there are no office bearers, the office will be closed. He said the delegates agreed that they could not give the executive mandate to work with BNSC without knowing what they have in store.
“The meeting ended with delegates instructing the BNSC to go back and consult further. Our constitution says when the term of office expires, there should be a committee that is co-opted. At the moment we are a legitimate committee running BISA office until the next elections in November. We cannot close the office because people are saying we should not continue,” he said.
Jonas said the delegates failed to co-opt a new committee. He said all BISA structures have expired starting from zonal level. He said this current committee is the one that would be running elections and accounts for the four years.
“We held the last SGM in May 2019. We have been struggling to host AGMs because of lack of funds. We have never been given funds for the AGM. The last returns sent to the Registrar of Societies was in 2019,” he said.
Meanwhile, when asked about the suspension of Kengaletswe, Jonas said there were a lot of issues surrounding the suspension.
“There are many issues that we had to deal with against her but I am not in a position to discuss them with the media,” Jonas said.
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