BFA asks for P50m, gets only P5.4m
Mqondisi Dube | Friday July 8, 2016 14:49
“We have been allocated P5.4 million and that is not enough for the national team alone. Our budget is at P59 million and we are being conservative,” BFA chief executive officer, Kitso Kemoeng said.
BFA regularly exhausts its budget and has to frequently turn to the government for bailout particularly for national team expenses.
The Zebras players have continually moaned poor remuneration and delayed payments with the BFA admitting it is broke.
The situation has been exacerbated by the withdrawal of sponsorship from partners, BancABC and Orange Botswana, which poured in millions to support the national team.
Botswana National Sport Commission (BNSC) affiliates have decried reduced government funding this year. Some sport codes are on the verge of exhausting their annual allocation, just four months into the financial year.
BNSC chairperson, Solly Reikeletseng has led calls for improved government funding saying results on the field justify such calls.
“When you are developing, you need a lot of resources. We have athletes who are good and are at the top. We need more resources than before but we don’t see the sports budget increasing.
Rather, it is decreasing and in the next four years, we might not have the success we are having now.
We are benefitting from investments from the past. As sports people, we have a right to be arrogant and call for more resources in sports. We have demonstrated we can contribute to the GDP and tourism.
We have made this country to be profiled all over the world. It is unfortunate if we do not know the amount of resources required at this stage.
We should be talking about a double budget instead of the normal budget we have been receiving,” Reikeletseng told Mmegi Sport before last year’s ordinary general meeting.