Incentives Policy: A one-size approach that does not fit all
Mqondisi Dube | Monday October 13, 2025 06:02
Twice has the 4x400m relay team received houses from the government under the Incentives Policy, a document that came into effect in 2012, developed to address gaps in rewarding sportspersons. Star athlete, Letsile Tebogo, has two houses under his name, as the scheme only applies to medals won at the Olympic Games. The financial rewards have mostly gone athletics' way, with others left to contend with crumbs for doing well in continental and lesser competitions. Athletics has been, by far, the best performing code that has truly challenged at a global level, with all of Botswana's three medals at the Olympics coming through athletics. Winning a world competition pays fat dividends, with the prize money diminishing at the regional and continental levels, where most local sportspersons have peers. Other than athletics, Botswana is yet to assemble a globally competitive team, bar the recent exploits of Ross Branch.
Athletics cannot be faulted for its acceleration at the global stage, with the Incentives Policy lauded for rewarding athletes for their sweat and blood. But could the Incentives Policy bar too high for most codes, with some targets seemingly unattainable? Besides athletes, very few local sportspersons have consistently challenged for medals at a global event. The Zebras, for instance, have struggled to reach just the finals of a continental competition, the Africa Cup of Nations. Reaching the finals is regarded as an achievement, with a very limited chance of the team progressing beyond the group stages. Winning is a remote possibility, meaning the purse is safe as the Zebras players are rank outsiders to hit the Incentives Policy jackpot. The requirements are the same across codes, but circumstances remain distinctly different. Botswana is proving to be a genuinely competitive athletics country, regularly producing prodigious talent that has stood the test against some of the finest runners from around the world. Athletics, therefore, is an exception; a gifted student planted in the midst of average performers. It is not far-fetched to link the development of the Incentives Policy to athletics, as it was conceived around the time when Amantle Montsho had been crowned world champion, whilst Nijel Amos had just won the country's first-ever Olympic medal. The Zebras had also done well the year before, managing their first-ever progress to the AFCON finals.
The policy could have been crafted as a way to minimise the regular disagreements over incentives when teams returned from international assignments. The government then believed a pay structure could solve some of the problems, as athletes back then relied on the benevolence of the state. The Incentives Policy has managed to erase some of the disagreements, as now, there is a structure to refer to. But whilst setting the bar high, the Incentives Policy appears to have ignored the general state of local sport that, other than athletics, few sportspersons will genuinely benefit from the creation of such a document. In fact, the policy has created class differences with athletes now the elite 'bourgeoisie' while the rest of the team scramble for crumbs. The situation is not a creation of the athletes, but rather a policy that ignored certain fundamentals, particularly the lack of genuinely world-class sportspersons across disciplines.
Minister of Sport and Arts, Jacob Kelebeng says the proposed review of the policy should address some of the shortcomings. 'The intention of the review is to address some of those challenges. We will do consultations, and ensure the policy is fair and accommodative to other codes,' he says.