Lobatse based side, Extension Gunners and Francistown’s Tafic are some of the country’s oldest teams with rich history. They also boast a lot of support from around the country. Their support is mainly visible when they are doing well.
Both teams have also produced players who went on to be become the crème-de la crème of the country. When one talks about Extension Gunners, players like Itumeleng Duiker, Scara Kebalepile, Terrence Mophuting, Morris Mauco, Solomon Moipolai come to mind.
For Tafic it is players like Mmoloki Sechele, Jomo Mosweu, Leonard Matenge, Wrist Mmusi and Senjoba Senjoba who are still popular among the club.
The fortunes of both teams have drastically dwindled as they have been fighting for survival in the Premier League for more than 10 years.
Other big teams like Township Rollers and Gaborone United and Township Rollers once went through a tough spell that even at some stage saw them relegated to the lower First Division.
Both teams managed to regroup and have now since turned into championship winning sides in the elite league. A season hardly passes without one of them winning major silverware.
Teams are even transforming going the commercialisation route while Gunners and Tafic seem not be still considering it.
Gunners’ chairman, Kitso Dlamini, decried the current state of affairs at Gunners. He said that the team has struggled for years mainly because of lack of finances.
“To be honest we have been struggling for so many years, the issue being money. We always find ourselves in a situation whereby we lose our quality players to other teams while we in turn cannot sign good players. It is tough on our side but we are just not sitting on our laurels. We are exploring all avenues to make Gunners a winning team,” he said.
Dlamini said they have appointed a committee that intends to spearhead privatisation of Extension Gunners. The committee, he said, is consulting many stake holders and Dlamini expressed optimism that they are making headway.
“Some local teams are already private and it is all going smoothly but we can see that others are facing challenges and I can tell you we are learning in both ways so that by the time we put things into practice everything is smooth. I am urging all our supporters to be a bit patient and the team will go back to its renowned winning ways,” he said.
