Racism allegations rock motorsport

Kabelo Boranabi | Friday August 23, 2019 12:16

The Botswana Motor Sport (BMS) has assembled a 29-member squad, including naturalised Batswana for the MXoAN competition to be held in Donnybrook Park, Zimbabwe from August 31 to September 1, 2019.

Over the past weekend, the team was unveiled in Gaborone, but only a handful of riders turned up for the event.

“This was a scheduled event, every rider knew about it, but the white contingent in the team decided not to turn up. They came up with all sorts of excuses at the last minute,” a rider who spoke to Mmegi Sport on condition of anonymity said.

“This is what has been happening, it is a clear act of racism, they are sabotaging our effort of getting sponsors.

Most of these riders are self-sponsored and it is a deliberate attempt to sabotage our course. It has been happening, but we never really spoke about it in the open.”

But BMS public relations officer, Joseph Khengere was quick to shot down the allegations as he said it was just a miscommunication amongst riders.

“I must say anyone can speculate anything they want to speculate, but from the PR desk I must say there has been a communication breakdown amongst the riders themselves.

The miscommunication made some people feel sidelined, but at the end of the day it’s not racism; it is more of miscommunication, because we are all flying the Botswana flag. We are not flying a different flag, we are flying the same flag,” he said.

Khengere, meanwhile, said the association’s budget has been depleted and they are struggling to source funds for the trip.

He said they are awaiting a response from the Botswana National Sport Commission (BNSC), but are optimistic funds would be availed.

“Funding is always a major issue, our budget was close to P600,000, but the parents of some riders came to the party so we managed to get certain logistics sorted.

They came around to see how best the expenses could be reduced.

 Our budget was lowered to around P400,000. Funds are not yet available, they are still with the BNSC and we are hoping it would be sorted this week,” he said.

 Botswana will be amongst the seven countries participating at the championships, including hosts Zimbabwe, Morocco, Uganda, South Africa, Kenya and Zambia. 

Last year, the locals finished fifth out of seven countries. This time around, the team is gunning for a podium finish. 

“The riders are going for the top three. We do not want to be number five or lower.

The idea is that the commercial sector should see that the sport is growing and the initiative is to produce better results. We’ve got one insurance company that is willing to assist; so far we are getting there,” said Khengere.

 The travelling squad

MX1

Kitso Malebo, Dartagnan Lobjoit, Robert Pollock, Ross Branch

MX2

Alexander Scherer, Brady Armstrong, Keith du Toit, Boineelo Rantao, Kagiso Stephens

MX 50

Nathan Pieterse, Kazz Gouveia

MX 65

Mohammed Noble, Jordan Maloba, Seth Meyer, Elang Chibana

MX 125

Kosmos Mmaloukos, Naazhim Bodhaya, Teto Chibana

MX Lites

Abdul Noble, Dante Hamse, Zameer Bodhaya, Tapiwa Tafa, Tabona Tafa

WMX

Janine du Toit, Mandi Pretorius, Tammi McAllistar

Veterans

Lebogang Mosope, Bradley Pieterse

Masters

Kenneth Pieterse