With ten months having lapsed with no primary school sporting activities going on, the Botswana Primary Schools Sports Association (BOPSSA) leadership has expressed a desire to have the situation put on a normal footing.
“We are committed to start with sporting activities even though nothing has materialized from the negotiations that are ongoing between BTU and Government,” said Edward Moreti, BOPSSA spokesperson.
It has been tools down with sports activities due to overtime negotiations that had been ongoing since last year, with the hope that government would put something in place for the teacher’s overtime allowances.
“The ten-month strike has killed our sporting activities, ultimately destroying sports development in the country,” said Moreti.
He added that the upcoming training course for coaches and umpires is a clear sign that they want things to move at BOPSSA. He said this has affected students as they will have difficulties coping after a long break from sports.
“We are preparing ourselves now because sports can take off again anytime from now,” he said.
BOPSSA will be holding sports administration courses for football, netball umpiring and coaching clinics and cricket umpiring and scoring clinic.
The sports administration course will be held at Lekedi Auditorium, while the netball coaching and umpiring clinic will be held at BONA courts.
The cricket umpiring and scoring clinic will be held at Gaborone Cricket Oval. The participants are from ten BOPSSA regions
“We cannot sit and look; things are not good but primary school sports have to continue,” he said, adding that BOPSSA is expecting a positive answer from the government soon and has everything in full swing.
Moreti said currently BOPSSA is faced with a lot of challenges.
“We have failed to introduce anything new this year. Since there has not been anything going on at BOPSSA, we intended to introduce Karate, Chess, Hockey but all this has not been possible.”
Moreti added that Botswana was supposed to host this year’s international sports games but, because of this situation at BOPSSA , Botswana could not host the games.
