The newly unveiled Botswana National Sports Commission (BNSC) Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Falcon Sedimo, says his first mandate at the commission is the implementation of key functions of the Commission in the new act. “My mandate is to develop implementation plan for the Sport Commission Act, to be preceded by policies that are going to guide us as we go along. That is the key thing that I am going to be doing particularly for the first year going to the second year, to set mechanisms in place to make the system operational,” the new BNSC CEO explained.
As the CEO of the BNSC, Sedimo says his duty includes making Botswana globally competitive in sports, more especially as sport significantly contributes to unity and pride in the nation. He said this will be done through robust grassroots sports development of athletes to make sure they produce elite athletes who can be handed over for accreditation to international competitions. As part of his duties, the new CEO said he will also have to see out the implementation of the BNSC Vision 2028. “We are going to be developing annual performance plans borrowed out of the 2028 strategy. We are going to be bringing down them down to smaller chunks which we can easily check. I am going to bring both the Vision 2028 and the Commission act together so that they talk to each other,” Sedimo said.
He added that while this will be a new unchartered territory, he is very excited to lead the Commission and he is ready to do as such. The new CEO said he expects to make tangible progress with quantifiable achievements in the five years he will be contracted to the BNSC. For his part, BNSC Chairperson Solly Reikeletseng said Sedimo was selected for the CEO post, which has been vacant for the past two years, because he was the most suitable candidate. “When you move into an unchartered territory, you look for experience. That is the first thing you look for, especially an experience with the mix of government, parastatal and private sector. If you look at Sedimo’s profile, he is somebody who has spent most of his life in government. He also has the parastatal mix as he worked with Botswana National Youth Council (BNYC) as well as the Botswana Football Association (BFA) which is a self sustaining organisation. He is someone with the full package to come and steer BNSC as it goes into the unchartered territory,” Reikeletseng said. He said with the elevation of BNSC into a commission, there was a need to strengthen the structure with a ‘substantive head of secretariat’ and Sedimo fitted the profile. According to Reikeletseng, the new CEO will have to among others, ‘set up the legislative framework for the commission, package and define the commission in terms of what it is and what it is supposed to do as well as set up policies.’ The BNSC CEO further said that with the Department of Sport and Recreation (DSR) now amalgamated into the BNSC, Sedimo, who was the DSR Director, is the perfect person to assimilate both the DSR and the BNSC.
