Administrators under fire as athletes go off rail
Calistus Kolantsho | Friday April 3, 2020 20:23
The recent case involved two high profile athletes, Baboloki Thebe and Onkabetse Nkobolo breaking camp, and being involved in a car accident.
In another sad development, a Township Rollers junior player, Johannes Oaitse died in a crash, which left rugby player, Kagiso Ditsebe injured. National Under-20 soccer team player, Phadza Chose was also in the car, which claimed Oaitse’s life.
Botswana Karate Association president, Tshepo Bathai pointed a finger at the leadership for the decline in discipline.
“Indiscipline amongst athletes is caused by us leaders. We influence athletes to misbehave. For example, in karate athletes who misbehave are told by grown ups to behave like that. Naturally sport should instil discipline,” he said.
Bathai said if one follows the constitution and code of conduct to instil discipline, they are accused of being unfair.
“So, it is us who encourage indiscipline. That is why all these National Sport Associations (NSAs) presidents just serve one term and go,” he said.
Bathai said all structures and institutions must respect each other and know when their mandate starts and ends.
“Then you would see performance of athletes going up. Currently, it is a hopeless situation. We cannot do anything to them because they are protected,” Bathai added.
Botswana Netball Association secretary general, Ntebo Maplanka believes indiscipline emanates from moral decay in the society. Maplanka argued that the recent cases do not show a developing trend, but instead it has been the norm, which has come to the fore due to the recent incidents.
“Remember that the athletes that we allude to, are from the society. Look at the school system right now, there’s a lot of indiscipline within our schools. Parents have given over their parental duties to teachers. Gone are the days when a child belonged to the community for proper upraising,” she said.
Maplanka said Batswana have resorted to finger pointing. “Instead of being problem solvers, this is why nowadays people watch it when one is attacked and no one lifts a hand to assist,” she added.
Maplanka said as long as the society is still disintegrated in the current manner, indiscipline would escalate. She said there is need for steadfast leadership in sport. “NSAs should implement a review structure, which would assess code performance for the benefit of the public because we use public funds to run associations.
They should not leave this practice to the media alone, who unfortunately also do not have a standard that is concise to fair review of NSAs’ performance,” Maplanka said.
Botswana Table Tennis Association president, Kudzanani Motswagole said it is a case-by-case issue, which is determined by the environment, and the solution to it ranges from looking at the value of playing sport in Botswana.
“We should have laws which tally with the sport incentives and the adherence should be strictly enforced,” Motswagole said. Botswana Integrated Sport Association (BISA) public relations officer, Letsweletse Jonas said athletes should be exposed to counselling when they reach a certain status.
He said at that point they feel that they are above everyone. He suggested that athletes should be guided on how to behave as public figures. “They are mature and NSAs should not take the blame alone. They have families to guide them,” he said.