Relief Fund 'broken promises'
Koketso Kgoboge | Friday July 17, 2020 08:15
The minister of Youth Empowerment, Sport and Culture Development (MYSC), Tumiso Rakgare announced in May that amounts would vary between P1,500 to P2,500 per player for three months.
First Division players were expected to receive P1,500 per month while their Premier League counterparts were supposed to get P2,500. But when the payouts came, some players received P1,000 for three months.
Botswana National Sport Commission (BNSC) sport development director, Bobby Gaseitsiwe said there could have been a misinterpretation of the minister’s message. He said the P2,500 and P1,500 were the maximum, and not standard figure for individual players.
He said it was why the BNSC requested clubs to furnish them with documentation of how they had assisted the players for the past three months before the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak.
They used the submissions of the clubs to assess how they would assist each player. This formed the basis of how much each player received.
“We relieve what the player could have lost in that period. The relief is even different for players of the same team because it is based on their contractual agreements or how they have been assisted in the past three months,” he explained.
“If for example, the player earns more than the set ceiling then they get the P2,500, and if the club assists a player with P600 and then we also aid with that P600 because that is what they would have lost.”
The confusion around the funds has left clubs and players disappointed. They argue the arrangement was supposed to be explained before funds were credited.
Sankoyo Bush Bucks spokesperson, Thato Molosi said some of their players received P1,000 for the three months instead of the P4,500 they were expecting. Other players, he said, were yet to receive the monies.
“It is painful for this to happen now. If there were any changes to what the minister said, clarity should have come earlier. It is wrong, and the players feel they were taken for granted. We are trying to follow up the matter,” Molosi said.
Notwane public relations officer, Mogomotsi ‘Ace’ Orapeleng also said his players were surprised with the amounts they received. He said no one had come out to clear the air.
He said around five of their players received the full amount, while the rest got part payments.
“We are also surprised, and when we asked for clarity from our football bodies, they had no answers, instead they referred us to the BNSC. We don’t know what is going on, but it is one of those things with our football,” he said.
Motlakase Power Dynamos’ secretary, Israel Thusang said the explanation he got from the BNSC was that the funds were paid based on how the club supported the players.
“It was a completely different story from what the minister said, and it is unfair to the players. We expected that they would have assisted players equally. It is like making them answerable for the instability of their clubs,” Thusang said.
However, Miscellaneous spokesperson, Edwin Ntau said their players received full amounts as per the promise.