Wagner presses ahead with Golden Grand Prix
Mqondisi Dube | Saturday March 9, 2024 07:20
The future of the Golden Grand Prix, held in Botswana for the first time last year, was shrouded in doubt when the World Athletics took away hosting rights from the local company, Golden Door Sports Agency, owned by Olympian Glody Dube.
He lost the rights to host the prestigious event after reported concerns over financial irregularities arising from last year’s edition.
In an interview this week, Wagner told MmegiSport that the competition has to go ahead on April 14 as per the World Athletics calendar. “I am working, but nobody can organise an event like that by himself. The event is scheduled for April 14, and that’s in the international calendar and cannot be changed.
We need to host that so many more and bigger things depend on that,” Wagner said. He added that he has approached the government, the Botswana Athletics Association (BAA), and last year’s title sponsor, First National Bank Botswana (FNBB) for assistance. “I am waiting for an answer from BAA, FNB, and the government.
It does depend on their answers. Nobody can do this without these partners. It has to be an equal partnership,” he said. However, Wagner is wary of the limited time between now and April 14, casting doubt on the ability to attract top international talent like last year. “To get superstars is not going to be easy.
Most athletes have now made other plans and there are also two Diamond League Meets in April. We just lost another two weeks,” he said. When asked if he was prepared to work with Dube in organising the event, Wagner briefly said, “I asked Glody to be the Meeting Director, many times.” Dube, meanwhile, recently told the media of what he saw as an elaborate plan by the government, through the Botswana National Sport Commission (BNSC), to wrestle the event away from him. He accused the BNSC CEO, Tuelo Serufho, of harassing him and said if Wagner is involved in ‘taking away’ the event, they will deal with that. Appearing before parliament’s Public Accounts Committee, the immediate past Ministry of Youth, Gender, Sport and Culture permanent secretary, Kitso Kemoeng, disputed Dube’s version.
He said the ministry did not want to ‘play to the gallery’ but instead there were issues of accountability. Kemoeng said Dube needed to account for nearly P1 million, and the government had only committed to sponsoring the event if that had been taken care of, including a payment plan.
Dube has said despite being stripped of the rights to host the competition, this year’s edition will go ahead. Athletics governing body, BAA vice president-administration, Oabona Theetso, said they had received a letter from Wagner regarding hosting this year’s Grand Prix. “I can confirm that we saw his email wherein he mentioned that he is the new ‘owner’ of BGGP and attached was a contract that we were to sign, but we didn’t because we are still awaiting a response from World Athletics concerning the new developments,” Theetso said.
The developments could put the event in jeopardy with just over a month before its scheduled date.