{"id":66404,"date":"2025-04-02T16:07:52","date_gmt":"2025-04-02T16:07:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/govt-spent-p1-3-million-on-independence-day-legends-match"},"modified":"2025-04-02T16:07:52","modified_gmt":"2025-04-02T16:07:52","slug":"govt-spent-p1-3-million-on-independence-day-legends-match","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/govt-spent-p1-3-million-on-independence-day-legends-match","title":{"rendered":"Gov\u2019T Spent P1.3 Million on Independence Day Legends Match"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Botswana. <\/strong><\/span><b>The Botswana government spent approximately P1.3 million on last year\u2019s Clash of Legends football match, a game that saw Zebras legends face off against their South African counterparts on Independence Day.<\/b><\/p>\n<p>The expenditure, recently revealed in Parliament, has sparked debate, particularly as the event replaced the traditional national team (s) fixture. Critics also argued that the government-funded match closely resembled another Clash of Legends tournament, organized annually by former Zebras player Sekhana Koko and others.<\/p>\n<p>Responding to a question posed by Arafat Khan, the Member of Parliament for Molepolole North, Minister of Sports and Arts Jacob Kelebeng disclosed that the total expenditure for the event was P1,283,897 (approximately P1.3 million). The funds covered transportation, accommodation, press conference arrangements, and match facilitation.<\/p>\n<p>Player payouts<\/p>\n<p>Kelebeng noted that each of the two teams was allocated P570,000, with individual payments made to players. Botswana\u2019s squad, consisting of 24 players, received P11,250 each, while the 18-member South African team earned R15,000 per player.<\/p>\n<p>With the government spending such a significant amount, critics have argued that the funds could have been better utilized, particularly for grassroots football development or other struggling sports.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe cannot be spending this much money on an exhibition match when local teams and other sporting codes are seriously struggling for funding,\u201d said a sports analyst who requested anonymity. \u201cIt was really unnecessary for the government to spend such an amount on a one-day exhibition game. Some sporting codes missed international competitions last year due to a lack of funds, yet this much was spent on a single exhibition match.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The controversy over the event underscores broader concerns about government spending priorities in Botswana\u2019s sports sector.<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Botswana<\/span> Follow <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Africa-Press<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; Botswana. The Botswana government spent approximately P1.3 million on last year\u2019s Clash of Legends football match, a game that saw Zebras legends face off against their South African counterparts on Independence Day. The expenditure, recently revealed in Parliament, has sparked debate, particularly as the event replaced the traditional national team (s) fixture. Critics [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":66403,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,17],"tags":[234],"class_list":["post-66404","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-sport","tag-botswana"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Gov\u2019T Spent P1.3 Million on Independence Day Legends Match - Botswana<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/govt-spent-p1-3-million-on-independence-day-legends-match\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Gov\u2019T Spent P1.3 Million on Independence Day Legends Match\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Africa-Press &#8211; Botswana. The Botswana government spent approximately P1.3 million on last year\u2019s Clash of Legends football match, a game that saw Zebras legends face off against their South African counterparts on Independence Day. The expenditure, recently revealed in Parliament, has sparked debate, particularly as the event replaced the traditional national team (s) fixture. Critics [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/govt-spent-p1-3-million-on-independence-day-legends-match\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Botswana\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-04-02T16:07:52+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/govt-spent-p1-3-million-on-independence-day-legends-match#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/govt-spent-p1-3-million-on-independence-day-legends-match\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Gov\u2019T Spent P1.3 Million on Independence Day Legends Match\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-04-02T16:07:52+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/govt-spent-p1-3-million-on-independence-day-legends-match\"},\"wordCount\":298,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/govt-spent-p1-3-million-on-independence-day-legends-match#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/botswana\/sites\/38\/2025\/04\/sm_1743601776.357992.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Botswana\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"sport\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/govt-spent-p1-3-million-on-independence-day-legends-match#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/govt-spent-p1-3-million-on-independence-day-legends-match\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/govt-spent-p1-3-million-on-independence-day-legends-match\",\"name\":\"Gov\u2019T Spent P1.3 Million on Independence Day Legends Match - 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