The Minister of Youth Sport and Culture, Shaw Kgathi, has thrown his weight behind a local clothing company, All Kasi, saying they should be given another chance to continue sponsoring the senior national soccer team, the Zebras.
In an interview with Sunday Standard, Kgathi said the government of Botswana pursues local empowerment and, as such, locals should always be given a chance where they deserve it.
Kgathi’s comments come at a time when a clothing company, All Kasi, looks set to lose sponsoring the senior national team to big international companies despite having come with the Zebras from way back when.
This is happening at a time when All Kasi should be breaking into the international markets because the Zebras have qualified for the 2012 Africa Cup of Nations that will be watched by millions of people.
“The government of Botswana fully encourages local empowerment. If locals can do what other foreign companies can do then the locals should be given a chance. The Zebras did well under the technical sponsorship of a local company and I believe they should continue,” he said.
Even though Kgathi says he does not yet know much about the tender, he said whatever is included should not have elements of self excluding so that the locals are given a fair chance.
All Kasi’s sponsorship deal with the BFA is coming to an end in August after a three-year relationship. Instead of negotiating for a new deal, the Botswana Football Association (BFA) opted for a tender, something that was not done before when All Kasi came on board.
Minister Kgathi, on the other hand, stressed that the tendering by the BFA is for transparency sake and expressed optimism that the local company has tendered.
The advertisement of the technical sponsor for soccer national teams in Botswana by the BFA sent shockwaves in the soccer industry with many people alleging that the BFA wants to ditch the locals for big companies. Names of companies that keep cropping up are that of PUMA and Umbro. BFA has been critisised for not negotiating with All Kasi before going for the tendering process.
All Kasi came at a time when companies were not willing to sponsor the Zebras because they were not doing well. At the time, national team players were not allowed to exchange jerseys after the match because there were not enough resources to buy the replacements.
All Kasi management has since hit back at the BFA for the unprofessional behavior in handling the whole process. This past week Marketing Director of All Kasi, Mokaedi ‘Barnes’ Maplanka, wrote a scathing letter to media houses critisising the BFA at the way they handled the matter. The contents of the letter even found their way to social networks such as Facebook where many people expressed their disappointment with the BFA.
