A vote for anti-doping reforms
Kabo Ramasia | Monday August 18, 2025 06:00
In the wake of the new law, there is optimism of a bright new day of reforms as the doping scourge rears its ugly head, KABO RAMASIA reports (blurb) The passing of the Anti-Doping Bill which will result in the establishment of a National Anti-Doping Organisation has been hailed as a positive move for local sport.
Motivating for its adoption in Parliament, the Minister of Sport and Arts Jacob Kelebeng said the National Anti-Doping Organisation will serve to regulate all doping activities in Botswana.
He cautioned athletes that the use of performance enhancing substances did not merely result in winning but could have serious long-term health hazards on athletes. It was on this basis that Members of Parliament agreed in unison to pass the Bill.
Kelebeng stated that the law seeks to ensure that there is efficiency in dealing with doping and also to strengthen law enforcement institutions as well as allowing for public education on the matter.
Reacting to the passing of the Bill, prominent athletics coach Justice Dipeba said the move was very important to have things in order and have the right to act if anything happens.
He said the country should be able to investigate and assess the growing doping phenomenon and find out what’s the problem. “It’s been really bad (in) the past few months where we had a lot of our athletes being tested positive and not putting us in a very good space in terms of now people starting to doubt our results. “So, I think something like this will put order in place and maybe we will see the incidents dropping or lessening and not being as many as they are,” said Dipeba.
He contended that amidst all this, even as coaches they have been asking themselves questions and not knowing what’s going on.
Dipeba explained that in their hypothesis as coaches they wondered if the rising doping cases were due to coaches wanting their athletes to perform, is it athletes wanting to perform because the country is doing very well in terms of incentives and appearance fees and all, sponsorships and big brands endorsements.
“We are lost, we are still confused, we don’t really know if it’s due to the money and incentives that are pushing the athletes to end up doing things that are getting them in trouble or it’s just the athletes not being aware of what they are doing because I want to believe that our local anti-doping organisations here in Botswana are doing a great job. They are always out there at sports gatherings and trying to impart knowledge and teach young athletes about the risk of doping,” he asserted.
Expressing his disappointment, the seasoned coach noted that despite efforts to teach athletes about doping, he wondered if it was an issue of negligence or not knowing that what they are taking contains prohibited substances or all that.
He buttressed that these many incidents in a very short period have really confused them as the athletics fraternity.
“We don’t know what’s the pressure. Are coaches involved, people around the athletes who are involved, or is it only the athletes who are in this business? We really don’t know,” added the seemingly frustrated coach.
He advised that in the long run athletes must be more careful as there is a lot that is happening in the world in terms of new products coming into the market.
Further, Dipeba said the confusion stems from there being healthy products made from labs.
Similarly, he suggested that there could possibly be those in the business of also making steroids, using the same machines and containers in the market.
He therefore argued that there would be contamination of some sort. To this end, he stated that to curb this, other countries have apps that can help athletes when they are buying supplements, to scan and see if the company producing is also making a prohibited substance.
In that way they would be aware that there is a possibility of contamination, he said.
Furthermore, Dipeba noted that “it is important to try and regulate and to try and educate even more, and to try and help our athletes make research before they go into a supplement”.
According to the coach, athletes seem to be taking hid of a lot of advice from people outside who tell them that supplements work for them, and they end up taking them without research.
Even so, he equally warned against athletes taking too many supplements.
Consequently, he hoped the new framework would help a lot in reducing or even stopping completely doping incidents that are being seen.
He stressed that this will result in the athletes being careful on what they are taking because the anti-doping legislation would hold them accountable if they tested positive for banned substances.
In light of this, the coach called on the athletes to take full responsibility of their actions.
For his part, athletics icon and coach, Raj Rathedi shared similar sentiments with Dipeba. Rathedi noted his concerns over growing cases of performance-enhancing drugs.
Rathedi observed that several factors contributed to this including athletes desire to become the best and or even gain celebrity status.
Other factors, he noted, could be the desire to attract and or win big money and sponsorship, coaches who wish to make it big through their athletes, managers and coaches who wish to make it big through their athletes and the social pressure on athletes to perform.
“I personally feel sorry for our young stars. They are so vulnerable, and they are likely to be taken advantage of. Unfortunately, most of our up-and-coming athletes find themselves in a situation where just anyone is in charge of these athletes and or their various programme,” he said.
Rathedi advised that for matters to be better controlled, sporting programmes must be headed or advised by people in Sports Science or at least former athletes.
He stressed the importance of protecting athletes stating the need for guidance.
The sporting fraternity awaits with bated breath to see the impact of the new framework once implemented.
In recent memory, Botswana has dominated the global athletics scene. Nevertheless, the success has been marred by negativity amid rising doping instances.