It all started as a mere tremor. Three key athletes suddenly pulling out of the national relay teams at the last minute. Their reasons? ‘Unpaid dues.’
But for those who know and understand the politics of Botswana sport, this was the signal of something bigger. Sports political masters were at play. The athletes’ mutiny was just the needed match stick to ignite the powder keg of Botswana athletics.
And this came to pass. A few days after the withdrawal of athletes, the masterminds played their card. A letter of intent to table a motion of no confidence on the entire Botswana Athletics Association (BAA) affiliates sufficed. The letter, which is written on the Central Athletics Club’s letterhead, appeared on the 9th May 2025.
The letter bears three signatures, allegedly belonging to Zachariah Friday of Central Athletics Club, Moshe Gochela of Moroka Athletics Club and California Molefe of Sports View Runners Club. In the letter, the concerned affiliates want a motion of no confidence to be debated when BAA convenes its Annual General Meeting this coming weekend.
Should the motion be passed by a simple majority, they want the affiliates at the AGM to vote in an ‘interim committee’ to take over the reins at BAA. The mandate of the committee will be to oversee the day to day running of the BAA and to call an Extraordinary General Meeting within twenty-one (21) days to elect a new substantive committee.
“The athletes were just a tool in the battle for positions and power within the BAA,” one club administrator says. “There were instigators behind this. The athletes’ withdrawal gave them a reason to come out.”
Speaking on condition of anonymity, the administrator points to two main reasons behind the current upheaval. The main reason is the upcoming World Athletics relays which are to be held in Botswana in May 2026. “This is a battle for Local Organising Committee (LOC) positions for the relays. People want to be at the helm when the relays are organised. Now they are hiding behind this motion of no confidence.”
Another reason, the club administrator says, is the battle for power between former national team athletes turned administrators and administrators who were not athletes. “As former athletes, some administrators feel they have the entitlement to run athletics.”
“While we have been consistently running clubs and producing athletes, these former athletes have opted not to be involved in athletes’ development. But they always insist that what we do in terms of developing athletes they can do. They even want to coach national teams even if they do not have coaching qualifications or even coach athletes at club level.”
However, one BAA insider, while acknowledging the involvement of some former athletes, disputes that they were not entirely to blame. “This is just the work of some renegades within the BAA. If it were just former athletes, you would not have signatures of people like Friday who were never national team athletes on the letter.”
“We already have an idea of who the instigator is. The person behind the letter dropped it at the BAA offices after it was signed. This letter is spearheaded by Sports View and the person behind it wants to control athletics. Unfortunately, he has not been able to control the BAA secretariat, which has in turn led to the current situation,” the insider says.
Meanwhile, BAA vice president administration Oabona Theetso refused to comment on the matter. “We cannot answer anything at the moment as the letter just spewed unsubstantiated allegations. Nothing was said in the letter to substantiate the allegations which gave rise to the letter. We will hear the reasons or facts behind the allegations at the BAA AGM next weekend. That is when we will be able to respond,” he says.
