Comprehensive Sports Bill deferred

Gothataone Moeng | Thursday December 5, 2013 18:13

 

The bill, which was presented by the Minister of Youth, Sports and Culture (MYSC) Shaw Kgathi on Tuesday, seeks to repeal and re-enact, with amendments, the Botswana National Sports Council Act, and to establish the sports council under the new name of the Botswana National Sports Commission.

It also provides for the registration of sports associations and provides for doping control.

Presenting the bill, Kgathi said the current Sports Council Act, which was enacted in 1967 with some amendments in the 1980s, was inadequate as it did not provide for contemporary issues in sports such as the professionalisation of sports and doping. 

Kgathi said the bill empowers the envisaged Sport Commission to regulate and promote professional sports which he said could contribute to the diversification of the economy. “I must emphasise that professionalisation of sport is critical,” he said. “If it is done and coordinated properly, it would diversify our economy as more and more young people would take up sports, create self-employment opportunities and thus accumulate wealth using their talent in sports.”

Kgathi said the new bill also provides for legal instruments to control doping in sports, which is an obligation as the country was a signatory to the UNESCO Convention Against Doping in Sports and a member of the World Anti-Doping Agency Foundation Board.The minister said there is no clarity between the three bodies that currently govern sports in Botswana, namely, the Department of Sports and Recreation (DSR), the National Sports Council and the Botswana National Olympic Committee (BNOC).

This has led to duplication of responsibilities and resulted in animosity between the bodies. Kgathi said the new bill clarifies this by articulating the role of the envisaged Sports Commission and its relationship with BNOC.

However, MPs were unhappy about the bill’s stipulation that the minister would appoint the CEO of the Sports Commission, saying that the appointment of the CEO should be done by the board.

 MPs also said the bill failed to provide for the streamlining or merging of the bodies that govern sports in Botswana.