Blow for Jack and George
Calistus Kolantsho | Monday June 30, 2025 09:18
The team could not travel due to lack of funds. The tournament also serves as a qualifier for the World Beach Volleyball Championship due to take place in Australia in August. Sekao and Chiswaniso made history when they won the first team event medal at the 2023 African Games. The team coach, Kabelo Marumo said the team is not even registered for the competition. “Other federations from the region were asking if we were attending the championships, and they were surprised that we were not attending. African Volleyball Confederation agreed to register us after the deadline because they believe in our team, they believe that this team can represent the continent,” he said. Marumo said failing to attend the 2025 Africa Beach Volleyball Championship is a drawback as they will once again miss out on participating in the World Championships. The team also failed to participate in the 2023 edition.
According to information reaching MmegiSport, Sekao, 28, and Chiswaniso, 26, have been removed from the Botswana National Sport Commission (BNSC) Zebra Fund because of their ages. Sekao said they were also informed that they could not travel because Chiswaniso had job commitments. “In volleyball, when my partner is held up, a replacement can be found. Regarding the Zebra Fund, we were informed that we were dropped and replaced by a younger team. We thought that after making history by winning the first team event medal in Ghana, we were still in the Zebra Fund. It was a shock to us that we have been dropped without reasons known to us,” he said. For his part, Chiswaniso disputed that he could not travel due to work commitments. “Volleyball leadership was aware of this tournament for a long time but they kept quiet. If they had registered us, they could have informed us to start training. If I were not available, someone could have partnered with Sekao, to go there, collect points because they are important,” Chiswaniso said. The BVF vice president-administration, Ndibo Lebala told MmegiSport that beach volleyball is their mainstay in international competition, but a lack of funds meant the team could not travel. “After hosting club championships last year, they exhausted all our funds.
The remainder was gobbled by the non-sponsored league. We spent a lot of funds on the administration side, the initial budget was P250, 000 and it was not enough. We thought that we could get an advance grant from BNSC last week, unfortunately, they also did not have funds,” he said. Lebala said failure to attend the championships is a drawback because next time, even if they have prepared, they will be lowly seeded. “It means they will also miss the World Championships, which affects the chances of Olympic qualification. Sekao and Chiswaniso are not in the Zebra Fund because of age, in terms of beach volleyball, they are still young. We had applied for Zebra Fund for the team, but BNSC decided to assist younger players,” he said. Sekao and Chiswaniso have been under the Zebras Fund for three years in a row. Lebala said the competition had been long announced but we realised that we were going to struggle to secure funding. He said they even tried to request funding from the Botswana National Olympic Committee but they also did not have funds. “Initially, we had not registered the team, but it was later removed because we did not show up,” Lebala said.