I have come to watch in amazement as the promoters of Botswana’s bid to host the 2027 African Cup of Nations try to make their case for why they are mounting this task in the first place. P 65 million later, all they have ended up doing is trading in fiction. And I do not blame them for clutching at straws in an effort to articulate the economic benefits of spending P10 billion on a soccer tournament.
And P10 billion by our standards is real money because it represents approximately five percent of Botswana‘s GDP. So if you add the reported annual P500 million maintenance fee of the stadiums to the P10 billion in sunk costs, then we are surely moving in a dangerous direction if we get the bid.
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