beMOBILE keen to continue marathon deal
Chakalisa Dube | Tuesday October 27, 2015 12:54
Ben Tobedza, who is the chief organiser of the marathon, told Mmegi Sport they are working on finalising sponsorship deal for the marathon before they could launch the 2016 marathon.
“We cannot name the sponsor now because nothing has been finalised. However, the sponsorship deal will be for a three-year period,” he said. Mmegi Sport has however learnt that beMOBILE who forked out P500,000 for last year’s event will sponsor the marathon for the next three years, although the amount is unknown. Tobedza said all proceeds collected from this year’s marathon will be handed over to five Francistown charity organisations early, next month.
“Overall, we made P200,000 from this year’s marathon. Even next year all the money made will be donated to charity,” he said.
The Botswana Telecommunications Corporations Limited (BTCL) Public Relations Manager, Golekanye Molapisi said the renewal of the sponsorship is under consideration by the BTCL Foundation Board of Trustees, who will make a pronouncement soon. beMOBILE is a subsidiary of BTCL.
“Over and above that the Foundation is also finalising on the list of organisations to benefit from funds raised during the previous beMOBILE Francistown City Marathon,” Molapisi added in a written response.
Although talks to renew the sponsorship have been going on for some time Mmegi Sport has learnt that on Friday the foundation board had a meeting in Gaborone to discuss finer details of the marathon sponsorship.
The meeting also reportedly discussed how the marathon could be improved going forward.
Yesterday, Molapisi confirmed the board met on Friday but declined to elaborate.
The maiden beMOBILE marathon took place in February this year and attracted over 1,500 runners both locally and internationally. beMOBILE promised to continue sponsoring the event based on the success of the maiden race.
Part of the reasons the marathon was to help improve the vibrancy of the city.