Major sponsors shun Mayor's marathon

Calistus Kolantsho | Monday September 17, 2018 18:35

 

Speaking during a press briefing on Monday, Gaborone mayor, Kagiso Thutlwe said companies have refused to be part of the event because of what transpired last year.

“The companies want a report so that they can consider us for next year. I do not have a problem with that. After this marathon, we are going to have a proper technical report that we will submit to the potential sponsors and other stakeholders,' he said.

Regarding the payments of athletes and officials, Thutlwe said Botswana Athletics Association (BAA) raised concern that athletes and officials are not paid after the race.

“As a commitment, we are going to pay the money into BAA bank account. The payment was supposed to be done last week but due to some issues that we had to iron out with the sponsor, the funds would be deposited this week,” he said.

Thutlwe said they do not want to be accused of failing to pay athletes after the race.

Meanwhile, BAA is yet to endorse the marathon.

BAA president, Thari Mooketsi said they cannot endorse the marathon before the sponsors have deposited the prize monies and technical officials allowances into the BAA account.

“We have agreed that the funds are deposited into our account because we do not want a repeat of last year where athletes were paid late. The funds were to be deposited last week but that did not happen. If you deliver according to the agreement, BAA does not have a problem in endorsing the marathon,” he said.

Mooketsi said the funds should be deposited into the BAA account by Thursday. Thutlwe said they are expecting eight athletes from Ethiopia. He said the marathon route has been marked and it is the same route that was used last year. A new 21km race has been included. Last year, a number of athletes got lost during the race as there were no proper markings, resulting in a mix-up in the final results.