Thamane Wins BSA Hot seat
Koketso Kgoboge | Monday April 30, 2018 12:24
Thamane is professionally chief executive officer of Citizen Entrepreneurial Development Agency (CEDA). Mukokomani did not contest the election.
Thamane and his group swept the stakes, winning all but one position of vice presidency, which was won by Batsetswe Gontlafetswe from a Katlholo Mosimanegape-led group.
The CEDA boss beat Mosimanegape by 17 to eight votes. Gontlafetswe won Puso Kgosietsile by 14-11 votes. Anastacia Makwa beat Nozibonela Payet to the secretary general position with 16-9. Rign Shangwa won the treasurer’s position 14-11 against Lapologang Kethoilwe.
Renny Molete who contested another term as competitions organiser lost to Donald Fologang by 19-6. Bobby Khupe became the new technical development officer after ousting Kopano Kenneth 14-11.
Kelebogile Seitei became the only member from the past administration to retain her seat as public relations and marketing officer with 17-8 votes against Molekane Bokhuto.
Thamane was elated with the victory. The incoming president said the new softball administration has hit the ground running.
“It was a resounding victory for me and my team. Softball has voted us and we will work selflessly to improve competition,” he said. He added that the elections have passed and they have buried factional differences to ensure “we focus on the ball”.
Thamane promised to bring a lot of changes in the game. He said he intends to create economic equality, equitable distribution of resources, improve administration and development structures, and create the Master’s league to avoid retirement. “We want to create fair competition for local teams and institutional teams. Time and again institutional teams flex their financial muscles against local teams and snatch their talent and that creates imbalance in competition.”
“We intend to bring more sponsors to the game and the potential is great. Through that we could empower the local teams and create a level competition ground.” He added that they intend to revive and create more tournaments across the country. “Most of the tournaments are played in the southern region and the intention is to create a number of tournaments in the northern region.”
“We only have a proper development structure in Gaborone and we need to spread those across the country. We should be able to develop and export talent to the rest of the world.”
He said they would immediately resume preparations for the national team that will be leaving for international competitions in the near future.
The women will be heading to the World Baseball/Softball Confederation (WBSC) senior women’s championships scheduled for Chiba, Japan in August.
The men’s team will be representing Africa at the Intercontinental Softball Cup in Prague, Czech Republic.