Botswana towards AFCON: Is Namibia friend or foe?
solly Reikeletseng | Saturday June 25, 2022 06:00
One of my greatest memories is spending days on end with the Russian Chess Grandmaster Gary Kimorich Kaspanov in Turkey during the Chess Olympiad. He gave me sport lessons, which opened my eyes to what sports is really all about and how we can take advantage of the lessons from the principles and character of sport.
Sport has two faces and two main outcomes, sport development and sport for development. The two should always be focused together for sport to make sense and find its place in the current dispensation. Gary told me that the game of chess is responsible for advanced technology in brain surgery, so many lives have been saved.
Sport injuries have helped in the evolution of medicine for a long time. The United Nations has focused its attention on fighting social ills through sports. Hosting the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) should be more a case for the economy with the spill-off case for sports.
The need to grow sports, especially the game of football, should be juxtaposed with elevating and bringing to truth the economical upliftment of our country, which is much needed due to countless tragedies over the last years, the culprit who takes the lion’s share being COVID-19.
COVID-19 has had far-reaching and devastating effects on our economy and as I strip naked this truth, its body exposes a poor, struggling household, unemployment, struggling business, emotionally sad souls, and eyes slowly losing hope. We can no longer romance this body any further for it has lost feelings; even a biblical kama-sutra will not 'jerk' it off.
We need to aggressively rape the body with an intervention dead focused on achievement. The AFCON is that remedy and we should be flying solo. Bringing Namibia to the party still eludes my mind and I am baffled as to why the bromance seems to have been ordered by the doctor. Maybe it is a marriage of convenience.
I am hearing in some corridors that they are about to discover oil and the current skyrocketing fuel prices might in future bring goodies. Regardless of the motive, we need to bring our negotiation hat to the table because they have a higher competitive advantage with their coastline and their massive fleet of flights. Well, this is above my pay grade so I will leave it here and not steer the deep waters. I submit my apology in advance for calling out a relationship without value.
There is no better time than this one to aggressively pursue hosting Africa. The country has amassed experience through the last games to be able to host an event of that magnitude. Developmental dictates of AFCON will assist us to move our development plans forward and benefit from international funding and support through technical expertise and standardization.
In the process we will develop the capacity to match international standards. The idea of hosting as a trigger-happy mentality and ego boost for self-gratification and power should be shelved. Hosting MUST be purposeful.
The need to host should be at the pinnacle of all the decisions we make and we must address three fundamental issues: 1. How will we use AFCON to move the current state of Botswana to the much-desired state? Better infrastructure, better healthcare, better skills, and international relations. We must be aware of our baseline and build tangible results.
2. The business environment must improve beyond reproach. On the sidelines of the championships, business groups should organise international conferences on any field that will develop business. I trust as you are reading this, you understand business to mean the business of business meant to facilitate business as opposed to profit.
3. How will our local football structures benefit? This must include a clear strategy for empowerment of all local structures. This is not limited to capacity building of human capital and infrastructure.
As I rest my pen, I wish to state that I have nothing but admiration for the Botswana Football Association and the Sport ministry for seeing the need to go beyond the current trend and aggressively pursue a feat for this country to shine and grow. It is goals and projects like this that will turn the fortunes of this country. Event tourism can only work if we give it a chance.
I insist though that a good idea is only good when the implementation carries with it a very sound and practical solution otherwise we don’t want to have a feeling that 're tikile masogo ka madi'.
*Solly Reikeletseng is a former Botswana National Sport Commission chairperson.