BNSC won't assist in individual tests
Calistus Kolantsho | Friday February 12, 2021 14:07
Acting BNSC chief executive officer, Tuelo Serufho said individual athletes and clubs will have to foot their own bill if they require coronavirus (COVID-19) tests. Speaking at a press briefing this week, Serufho said the government would only fund activities such as CAF and Olympic Games competitions. He said sports activities are not suspended, but National Sport Associations (NSA) are expected to follow COVID-19 protocols. He said the Commission is aware that while sport is necessary during such a pandemic, chances of transmission are high during activities.
“If the government through the Ministry of Youth Empowerment, Sport and Culture Development (MYSC) decides to stop sport, the BNSC guidelines would be suspended. But that could only happen if they send us official communication so, for now, we continue with our plan because we have not received anything from them,” he said. Serufho said NSAs have been advised to stop face-to-face meetings and all Annual General Meetings (AGM) should be held virtually. He said if there is a situation where physical meetings cannot be avoided, the sport codes should send a request to BNSC detailing reasons as to why they opted against a virtual meeting.
He said this was part of measures to curb the spread of COVID-19. Despite the devastating impact of the pandemic, Serufho said they did not expect a reduction in their grant from the government. In the last financial year, BNSC received P100 million.
Meanwhile, BNSC has come up with a matrix to be used in the COVID-19 guidelines, which took into consideration the risk each sport code faced. Athletics, badminton, bodybuilding, boxing, bridge, chess, cricket, cycling, darts, football, motorsport, professional boxing, softball, squash, swimming, table tennis, tennis, traditional sports games and volleyball have been classified under low-risk codes.
Those that are high risk and only allowed to train but not compete are basketball, dance sports, fencing, handball, hockey, judo, karate, korfball, netball, rugby, taekwondo, BOTESSA and wrestling.