Africa-Press – Botswana. The Botswana Volleyball Federation (BVF) president, Tsosi Magang has criticised her predecessor, Daniel Molaodi for flouting competition hosting procedures. This follows a decision to postpone the third leg of the Zone 6 Beach Volleyball tour that was scheduled for Gaborone this week.
Magang told Mmegi Sport that she was surprised that her predecessor failed to inform the Botswana National Sport Commission (BNSC) about the intention to host the championships. “I was part of the BNSC Board that came up with hosting guidelines for games and activities. We set them out as a country where we can prepare and engage the relevant stakeholders on time. If you want to host zonal games, you have to apply a year in advance. It just surprises me that when Zone 6 agreed and somebody who was the chairperson for the Hosting Committee, who knew that it is important to inform BNSC right away, failed to do that,” she said. Magang said BNSC was informed on May 9. She said when she made a follow up through the vice president-administration, Ndibo Lebala, she learnt that the letter was only written to the BNSC this month. “All along I was told that BNSC was informed. They are right to say that they were not aware.
They might have heard it like everyone else. When such information comes through late, it is difficult to be assisted. That is why in the end I decided that we push sponsors. We have approached BNSC to assist us and we hope the postponement will give them time to plan something for us,” she said. Magang said the budget for the games is P140,000 and said even if the BNSC does not offer the full amount, the mother body can give them what it can afford. She said they are in this situation not because of their own doing as they are a new committee.
Magang said the mandate of the BNSC is sports development and they should put that forward. She added that assistance is not only financial but even putting a good word for volleyball goes a long way. Magang said the postponement of the championships was due to financial constraints as the previous committee did not have a budget for the competition. “Unfortunately, we found that our predecessors did not put aside funds to host the games. They had found a venue that we thought was not a good venue. We needed to fill up the courts with sand, which was going to be expensive for us.
The previous committee had also set up a Local Organising Committee (LOC). The LOC had done nothing,” she said. Magang said the idea is to invest in volleyball when they host Zone 6. Despite the setback, Magang said they have managed to partner with Marabou Rocks Park and they can use the venue for games after the tournament. BNSC chief executive officer, Tuelo Serufho told Mmegi Sport that BVF had not complied with hosting guidelines including obtaining permission to host and securing funding from the Commission. “As a result, we had not budgeted for their competition.
We are currently engaging them with a view to finding a solution but we wish to remind them and other National Sport Associations that the reason there are guidelines is not to unnecessarily make their lives difficult, but to ensure that we can properly plan and budget for international events to avoid occurrences like the current one,” he said. The new dates for the championships will be announced after an agreement has been reached with the Zone 6 executive committee.
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