Silent Angola Keeps CUCSA Members Guessing
Naledi Lemogang | Monday March 13, 2017 16:12
Speaking at the CUCSA annual general meeting in Gaborone on Saturday, Botswana Tertiary Students Sports Association (BOTESSA) president, Moffat Ramasotla said Angola had not communicated if they will host the 2018 competition or not. BOTESSA is a CUCSA affiliate.
“The problem we have in CUCSA is that Angola is not communicating. The members are not satisfied with their silence since they are supposed to host the next year games. They have not given the association a response yet,” Ramasotla said.
He said they have been communicating with one person from Angola, adding that they do not know if there is a committee or not.
He said if Angola does not respond, Botswana will be the next member to host the games therefore they will be waiting for a request letter before the end of April. Ramasotla said they can consider the request and plead with the BNSC, Ministry of Tertiary Education, Research, Science and Technology and the Botswana National Youth Council to give them the greenlight. He said they are ready to host next year’s games as they have experience from organising the 2010 competition.
Meanwhile, education ministries have been urged to balance academic priorities and sports. CUCSA president, Ben Naobeb said the balance is critical for the full development and promotion of sport in tertiary institutions. Naobeb encouraged tertiary institutions and colleges to adopt CUCSA sporting programmes to avoid a clash with academics programmes and the championships.
“The sporting programmes must be enhanced in the ministries because the activities that we are engaged in are normally outside the academic programmes,” Naobeb said.
He said their wish is to have more games and students in the competitions hence the need to discuss the calendar of events so that it can be enhanced in the institutions. Deputy permanent secretary in the ministry of Tertiary Education, Research, Science and Technology, Oupa Masesane said they will continue to give BOTTESA and CUCSA all the necessary support to enable them to realise their objectives.
He said sports is not all about competition rather it is also an unifying factor.
Masesane said it is important that discipline is instilled at all stages of sports development to create a clean sport culture.
“Tertiary institutions sport is a point of departure into an elite sport where athletes could become professionals and earn a living from it.
The job market is saturated and there is need to explore these untapped markets through high performance by our athletes,” Masesane said.
He said those athletes who excel in local and CUCSA competitions end up representing their countries at continental and international stage therefore there is a need for CUCSA activities to be in balance with the academic schedules.
Seven out of the 10 CUCSA members; Botswana, Lesotho, Zambia, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Namibia and Swaziland attended while Angola, Malawi and Mozambique were absent.