February 29th and 30th might go into the history books as the days that drastically changed the sports fraternity of Botswana provided things are done accordingly. The sports fraternity of the country convened under one roof table to chat the way forward regarding the dismal performance of Botswana sports at international level that has been going on since independence.The gathering that was known as ‘Sports Pitso’ touched on several things that are holding the country back and ways that can be done to improve the sports fraternity in the country. Once the results come into place Botswana would not be once again called with distasteful names such as the whipping boys. Honestly nothing new was discussed at the gathering. Some of the agreements was to take development of sports talent from a young age by establishment of sports academies around the country. Those players with talent will be kept in same schools so that they learn together unlike being in different areas as is the case currently. This has been a song for years and no clear cut modalities are in place to take it forward. Another interesting point was the contribution of P1 by Batswana at least a month. They modeled this from the time when the University of Botswana was built whereby Batswana donated cattle. The Botswana Football Association tried it through it Football Development Appeal (FODA) project. FODA is still running but going at a snail pace than expected. Batswana would really want to know how the money would be really spent and this is where transparency is needed. Generally most of the initiatives discussed are actually the same that have been on the table for the past twenty years. The difference is just a matter of old wine in new bottles. As the country we tend to shy away from the reality but keep on having endless discussions. There is nothing like short cuts in sports and if things are done the right way results will obviously follow. If good initiatives are there while nothing is going on the ground we would always be called by derogatory names. Sports development is a an expensive exercise that requires a lot of money and if the country or companies are not prepared to couch much, there will always be mpre Sports Pitsos in this country. Of course the government should spearhead sports development in the country, but sports codes are ones that can actually take themselves off the ground and finally be financially independent as is the case in other countries. Most countries that excel in sports, codes get support from the private sector for self sustainability while in Botswana it is mainly the government. Companies in this country are not doing much to support sports despite the massive profits they make on annual basis. On the other hand codes must not let sponsors to come their way, they should put their houses in order so that if someone comes on board with something, he could realize that there is seriousness. The government in turn need to seriously lobby the private sector to sponsor sports and in turn have to give such companies leeway such as tax rebates. Those companies that make money out of government projects should be forced to contribute something. Such contribution should come as a form of community social responsibility.
Definitely without resources there is no way sports can develop. The government through the Ministries of Lands and Housing and Local government should on the other hand make it easy for teams to have land anywhere they want in the country. Pitches or open spaces where most of such teams hold their training sessions are in despicable conditions. This is mainly because they do not own such land and they know that they can be chased out any time. It is also gratifying to see the spear headers of Sports Pitso being legislators who were once administrators in the field, but there should be a caution. Politics and sports are two parallel things and if the former can be left to take control of whatever sports initiative is in place nothing can actually work. A lot of talk has been made but it is now time to go forward.
