Mokgadi eyes 2017 netball masterpiece
Calistus Kolantsho | Friday January 15, 2016 13:47
Behind her office desk, Prisca Mokgadi eases into the topical subject; the first ever hosting of the World Youth Netball Cup in Africa next year. Botswana is organising the tournament.
Mokgadi appreciates the huge task dumped on her soldiers as she is expected to be behind the steering wheel and deliver seamlessly.
She believes she landed the LOC chairperson’s position as a recognition for her contribution to the sport.
She has been involved in netball as a player in the 1970s and was part of the first national team. Mokgadi played for Notwane as a Wing Attack (WA) and in some instances as a Centre (C). She rose though the ranks and ended up being the Botswana Netball Association (BONA) president before calling it quits.
“At 60 years I feel I can still do more for the country. My role gives me an opportunity to give back to the community and I believe that we are going to have a successful World Cup next year,” she says with a smile.
Mokgadi says the competition will be the first to be held in Africa and will put Botswana on the world map. She says the netball people always travel as families hence a lot of money would be injected into the economy.
She says for the first time, International Netball Federation (INF) has decided that participation in the competition will be through qualification. Botswana hosts Africa region qualifiers in July and Mokgadi believes this is a perfect opportunity to gauge the LOC’s readiness for the main event.
“The event is a big milestone for Botswana and we presented an initial budget of P45 million to the government and we have been offered P10.9 million.
The Ministry of Youth, Sport and Culture has agreed to second their staff to our secretariat. It is a priority to have a full time secretariat. The secretariat is expected to start work soon,” she says.
She explains that they are struggling to work without a secretariat.
Mokgadi says they are working with the private sector and with members of the LOC from private entities.
She says INF expects games to be played in indoor facilities, adding they had expected the University of Botswana (UB) to come to their rescue but unfortunately this has not been possible. She says they now have to identify another facility. She says the facilities that will be used should meet INF standards. Mokgadi says the courts will be fitted with sprang floors and each floor comes at a cost of P2 million each. She said the government is assisting in the procurement of sprang floors.
Mokgadi says if they were allocated the funds they had requested they could have upgraded the BONA courts and the games were going to leave a legacy.
Meanwhile, Mokgadi feels their work is behind schedule and something has to be done to catch up. She says the national team coach should have started preparing the team for the qualifiers.