On the 03rd December 2024, Botswana National Sport Council (BNSC) announced a temporary closure of the National Stadium in Gaborone for the renovation of the athletics track.
The renovation of the track, which had allegedly reached the end of its operational lifespan, was expected to allow the country to host the FNB Botswana Golden Grand Prix.
“The facility has been officially handed over to the contractor who is set to commence work immediately,” the BNSC stated. At the time, the project was estimated to take only four months, running from December 4, 2024 to March 2025.
Interestingly, BNSC even asked its stakeholders to be patient as the stadium doors would open ‘sooner than they think.’ But as has always been when it comes to the national stadium renovations, finishing work on time would have been an anomaly.
On the eve of the FNB Botswana Grand Prix on the 12th April 2025, past the expected completion time, the National Stadium track renovation was still ongoing. While the athletes were holding their meet and greet with the press, race organisers were sweating over the availability of the stadium.
The debacle over the National Stadium track renovation raises questions over Botswana’s readiness to host international events. It has left many Batswana questioning whether the debacle would not affect the country’s future bids to host bigger international athletics events.
Reached for comment on the matter, Botswana Athletics Association (BAA) vice president Oabona Theetso said he does not believe the country’s future bids will be affected. “If you remember well, the organisers did not have enough time to prepare to host this event. They were only given the rights to host in January this year after a lot of wranglings over the event ownership.”
While optimistic future bids will not be affected, he however said the current debacle can be used as a learning curve. As Botswana prepares to welcome the world’s best athletes for the prestigious World Relays in 2026, the country should learn to start preparations well in time.
“We can not leave things until the last minute. We have to do things well in time. The renovations started in December during a rainy season, which interrupted work and delayed progress. Had the renovations started around October, maybe we would not be in the situation we are in right now.”
Theetso further said the current situation also shows the country needs to have another good facility in or closer to Gaborone. “We need another stadium. As it is, the national stadium is the only facility around Gaborone that hosts major events. Having another facility will reduce over reliance and over use of the stadium.”
FNB Botswana Golden Grand Prix Local Organising Committee (LOC) chairman Steve Bothasitse said he does not believe the situation would affect the future of the event. While not to discuss the situation further, the LOC chairman said they are constantly updating World Athletics on everything concerning the event.
Even if the National Stadium is available on Saturday, one sports administrator said Batswana have to be concerned about the country’s facilities. Given the countless times when the renovations of the stadium failed to complete on time, the administrator said the country needs to be serious about infrastructure development.
“We need more facilities. When we were bidding to host Afcon, the country said it was planning to build good facilities to host the games. Now we have to ask, were those meant just for Afcon? If there were funds set aside to build facilities for Afcon 2027, some of those monies must be used to build us another stadium here in Gaborone.”
As Botswana prepares for the World Relays, the administrator said the country needs to start preparations now. Of importance, the administrator said work must be hastened on the muted renovations of the University of Botswana stadium, which is earmarked to be used as a warm-up track.
“But in the future, we have to look at building a warm-up athletics track closer to the national stadium. May be in future they can consider relocating some of the facilities around the national stadium like the Softball National Diamond and Botswana Netball courts and set up warm up tracks there,” the administrator said.
