Athletes receive Relief Fund payouts
Calistus Kolantsho | Friday June 19, 2020 13:20
The first payments were made this week, following the Minister of Youth Empowerment, Sport and Culture Development, Tumiso Rakgare announcing the scheme last month.
Football is expected to take the largest chunk of around P5 million over three months, with about P1.7 million paid monthly.
The Relief Fund is expected to cater for Premier League, First Division League and other professional athletes across other National Sport Associations (NSAs).
The Botswana National Sport Commission (BNSC) technical director, Bobby Gaseitsiwe confirmed the process has started, after affiliates took longer to submit beneficiaries.
“The challenge was that NSAs took a long time to submit applications for the fund. It is an indication that they waited for the June 4, 2020 deadline. We had instances whereby 80% of the beneficiaries did not route their applications through their NSAs,” he said.
Gaseitsiwe said the ministry has already deposited the funds into the BNSC account for smooth payments to be done. He pointed out that it was a difficult process that needed all hands on deck and team management has been cooperative with the BNSC.
“When the deadline arrived, almost all applications were in although there were some which were still behind because they needed additional information from the athletes,” he said.
“We have other professional athletes who are engaged in South Africa so they had to benefit too. Individual athletes who are not affiliated to any NSA were allowed to make their personal submissions. Even sport academies are also included.”
Gaseitsiwe said there is no application that was disqualified because the BNSC decided that NSAs should submit additional information as per the guidelines.