BOKA urged to speed up claims for athletes� incentives
Calistus Kolantsho | Friday June 9, 2017 15:51
The team brought home two gold, two silver and three bronze medals. Sedimo said his major concern is that the incentives are always processed late. He said the submission should be done upon arrival and the policy should be that within 48 hours, the claims should be done. He said if the athletes are not paid, they will get demoralised.
“The Ministry of Youth Empowerment, Sport and Culture Development is not happy that incentives and appearance fees for athletes are paid late. I want to see some of these athletes in the 2019 All Africa Games team,” he said.
Sedimo said after many years, team kata has eventually won a gold medal at UFAK championships. He called for an increase in the number of women in the team. He said it is not going to come cheap because sport development is a process and does not come cheap. Sedimo said it was important to retain the technical staff for a certain period.
“My request to you BOKA president, is that let us avoid to change coaches. Let us retain the same technical team so that we can develop our team properly,” he said.
Sedimo said together with the Botswana National Olympic Committee (BNOC), they will look into their programmes to see how they can assist sporting codes that are doing well.
BNOC CEO, Tuelo Serufho said competitive sport does not take a long time. He said athletes are only competitive up to a certain age. He called upon the athletes to focus on sport and make a lot of money as much as they can. Serufho said karate has always been known as the best performing sport, but they should work hard to prove themselves that they are better than athletics.
The senior national team coach, Sensei Otto Tafa said the tournament was tough. He said they have been fighting for a gold medal in team kata and the last time they missed it was in 2003, settling for silver. He said they are now pushing for a gold medal for team kumite.
“We are always struggling with Arab countries such as Tunisia, Egypt and Algeria. I suggest that we start going to those countries for our training camps,” he said.