Over the weekend, Botswana National Olympic Committee (BNOC) elected a record number of women as board members at an annual general meeting.
During the elective meeting, history was made as four out of the seven seats in the BNOC board went to women.
Yarona Sharp, Tebo Segaise and Unaswi Matebu were elected as additional board members while Boineelo Hardy, president of Botswana Basketball Association was elected the BNOC second vice president.
Elsewhere, Botsang Tshenyego and Tshepo Sitale managed to retain their positions as BNOC President and senior vice president respectively, while Michael Moroka was elected first vice president.
Following the elective general meeting, Women and Sport Botswana (WASBO) Chairperson, Matlho Kgosi said they are grateful and proud of all women who raised their hands to leadership positions in the recent elections.
“In 2017, we had 43% representation and this year we gained 14% to make 57% representation of women in the board. We can only grow bigger as a women body to ensure more women are equipped to attain leadership positions,” she said. Kgosi noted that she applause those women who saw the value in supporting these worthy women both men and women.
With this new development, Sport Management Agency (SMA) co-founder, Tsoseletso Magang said now that the board consist of four women, her deepest wish is that they may always remember in the back of their minds that they are leading the board.
“They must make use of this opportunity to also advocate and push women agenda and their growth in sport leadership board. Ke gore ba utlwale tota, and they must ensure that when they step down after four years, there would be a big difference,” she stated.
Magang noted that for the longest time, women have been undermining themselves as they tend to want to be perfect before attempting to do something out of their comfort zone.
“As women, we always want to feel totally well equipped more especially in regard to leadership posts. Now seeing multiple women in one position like that of additional member can also translate to the element that they do not have a lot of confidence in themselves,” Magang explained.
“Candidates like Yarona Sharp have the ability to stand in high positions. I had wished for her to head there. But then again, she might have underestimated herself and her capability looking at the people standing for those positions; who have been in the running of sport for a little while longer and might be more favourable to voters,” she added.
In hindsight, Magang noted that a lot of balancing is done before standing for a certain post. This, she says, comes as majority of voters are men and with the imbalance between female and male when it comes to leadership, they were likely to vote male than female. She said men still need to be educated more that women too can lead just like them.
“With all honesty, additional members make little difference. Kudos to Hardy who took the bull by the horns. I was happy it was women against each other because one way or the other we would still be having a female for the second vice presidency post,” she concluded.
