Concerned BNSC summons BAA over treatment of athletes

Calistus Kolantsho | Wednesday September 20, 2017 12:24

 

Some of athletes who were part of the World Championships team in London

Reports have emerged that some athletes are yet to receive allowances for the 2015 Senior Southern Region Championships held in Mauritius, while 400m runner, Baboloki Thebe accused the BAA of negligence after being injured in London in August.

BNSC has asked for a meeting with the BAA executive committee in a bid to address the matter. The BNSC feels the matters have the potential to affect relationships with sponsors.

Responding to Mmegi Sport enquiries yesterday, BNSC chief executive officer, Falcon Sedimo said he has been closely following media reports on BAA. He said the association has been receiving negative publicity for sometime now and that might affect sponsors. He said as such, he has called a meeting with the BAA executive committee to get to the bottom of the matter.

“I have called a meeting with the leadership. I want to find out what is going on there. At the moment, the BAA president is not available but call me before end of this week, I would have met them,” he said. Sedimo said he could not dwell much on other issues that Mmegi Sport enquired about before he met the BAA executive.

Sedimo’s reaction comes at a time when the BAA is accused of delays in paying athletes allowances. The team is owed payments from the 2015 Senior Southern Region Championships held in Mauritius and the 2017 Cardiff training camp. A source informed Mmegi Sport that the claims that records went missing at BNSC was not true. BAA additional member, Moses Raphutse had said in an initial interview that the records for the Mauritius trip had gone missing at BNSC. “We do not keep athletes records at BNSC. It is a big lie.

Those things were never submitted by BAA to us. Ask them to tell you the truth,” the source said. Meanwhile, Sedimo said he is aware of everything that is going on regarding the issue of athletes allowances hence he called for a meeting with the executive.

BAA spokesperson, Ipolokeng Ramatshaba said they had not received any information from the CEO’s office inviting them to a meeting. He said they are not even aware what the meeting is all about. “I am in the dark about the meeting that you are talking about. Maybe they sent a correspondence to the office. I will find out,” he said.