Botswana Athletics Association (BAA) has recommended its president, Moses Bantsi, to be appointed as the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the 2026 World Relays.
According to well placed sources, the BAA leader’s appointment is already approved. “The Minister has already agreed to his appointment to head the World Relays secretariat. His appointment letter has already been sent to the relevant officers to deliver to him.”
The appointment means Bantsi will now temporarily relinquish his position as the BAA president. He is expected to resume the role once the relays have been concluded. It is said his appointment was necessitated mostly by time constraints as the relays are just less than ten months away.
Having been part of the World Relays bid committee, the BAA believed its president to be well suited for the role. Ever since Botswana was awarded the World Relays hosting rights, Bantsi has been busy doing the ground work preparations, something which is also believed to have influenced the association to recommend him to lead the secretariat.
“From the moment we were awarded the rights, he dedicated his time to lead preparations. He literally even forsook his duties as the BAA president to concentrate on preparations. So, it was an easy decision for the BAA executive committee to release him to lead the 2026 World Relays secretariat,” the source says.
When reached for comment, Bantsi confirmed that he had been released by the BAA executive to lead the World Relays secretariat. “It was the BAA executive which recommended me for the post. However, I am currently still waiting for the appointment letter.”
In the meantime, he says processes are ongoing to appoint office bearers for the secretariat. “Our wish was to have set up the secretariat as early as May or June this year. Unfortunately, there have been unforeseen delays. We are however hopeful the secretariat will be up and running this coming month of July.”
To ensure successful hosting of the games, a two-way approach to recruitment of officers is being undertaken. The first approach is the sending of requests to various government offices and private sectors to second some experts to be part of the secretariat. The second approach is the direct recruitment of some key personnel needed for specific roles within the secretariat.
“We have already sent letters of request to both the government and the private sector for secondment of officers. Unfortunately, some of them are yet to respond to our request. This has contributed to the delays we have in filling certain positions in our secretariat.”
At the other end, the appointment of the 2026 World Relays Local Organising Committee (LOC) is also said to be nearing completion. It is said that the majority of LOC members have already received their appointment letters. The delivery of the appointment letters is said to have commenced on 19th June 2025.
“Only three positions within the LOC are yet to be filled. We expect them to be filled very soon and the LOC sub committees to be ready by the end of this coming week. As most of the LOC members are already appointed, we understand they have been working on appointing their own sub-committees to work with,” Bantsi explains.
The delays in the finalization of both the LOC and Secretariat are already a cause for concern. As World Relay hosts, Botswana is expected to meet certain milestones set by World Athletics. Among those, the set-up of both the LOC and the Secretariat are well overdue. Both are key in driving the key milestones set by World Athletics for successful hosting of the relays.
“According to the World Athletics requirements, we have about 127 milestones we have to achieve. These milestones dictate when certain things should be done and when they must be completed. We continuously engage with World Athletics to report on the progress made towards achieving the set milestones. The last meeting we had with them in this regard was on the 26th of June, which is this past Thursday.”
Meanwhile, Bantsi said the cost of hosting will be close to P100 million. He however says this is an inclusive estimate and will go down as partners come on board to sponsor in kind. Among the costs is the bond deposit paid to World Athletics. The deposit is however refunded to the hosts once the event has been hosted.
While the costs look high, the returns are expected to surpass them. “In 2024, Bahamas had a net return of US$25 million from hosting the World Relays. This is approximately in excess of P334 million. From this, you can see that the returns far exceed the costs incurred.”
Aside from the immediate returns, hosting is also expected to benefit the country in the long run. It is expected to boost Botswana’s tourism sector. There will also be improvements in the country’s sporting infrastructure, with refurbishments at both the National Stadium and the UB Stadium expected.
The 2026 World Relays will be held in Gaborone on the 2nd and 3rd May 2026.
