Nkaigwa leads sports agenda in Parliament
Oageng Batenegi | Thursday April 21, 2016 11:28
When Parliament resumes, the Minister of Youth, Sport and Culture, Thapelo Olopeng is expected to give Nkaigwa answers on an outstanding question, which the minister could not respond to due to limited time.
Olopeng is expected to tell Nkaigwa and Parliament, the criteria the Botswana National Sports Commission (BNSC) uses to distribute the budget to its affiliates.
The questions that Olopeng has already provided Nkaigwa with answers for include the one on the Re Ba Bona Ha programme. Nkaigwa wanted to know if the programme still exists and the reasons for the budget reduction for the programme.
Nkaigwa also inquired about incentives received by athletes while on national and international assignments. Nkaigwa had also at some point asked Olopeng to state the government’s plans to support professional sport development in the country.
The opposition MP had asked about the impact of the constituency tournaments on mainstream leagues due to their attractive packages.
Nkaigwa asked Olopeng if the government will consider directly helping formal leagues with money like the same gesture has been extended to constituency tournaments.
However, other MPs have not been entirely left out. MP for Francistown East, Buti Billy asked Olopeng to state the names of local companies that had benefited from the past national and international games at the Francistown Sports Complex. Since the stadium opened last year, local companies have benefitted from business worth P1.6 million. Setlhomo Lelatisitswe, MP for Boteti East asked about constituency teams that are owed prize money by the government. MPs Pius Mokgware of Gabane-Mmankgodi and Nkaigwa made supplementary questions around what the ministry responsible is doing to make sure that the problem does not recur.
MP for Ghanzi North, Noah Salakae wanted to know whether the proposed mini-stadium in Ghanzi under 2012 OlymAfrica International Foundation is still planned to kick start in 2017 as promised concluding what has been a busy session for the sports minister.