No excuses, re paletswe

| Friday June 11, 2010 00:00

For the up-coming month, the African continent courtesy of the dedication and resolve of the South Africans, will witness the greatest footballing event ever taking place on its shore. As this is a 'once in a lifetime opportunity' we have to reflect as a society that finds itself next to the World Cup 2010 host, to find out why we failed to fully capitalize on this rare phenomenon, and learn from countries such as Zimbabwe and Tanzania as to how they managed to, benefit from the same.

The starting point therefore would be to ask a few questions, particularly in relation to to the so-called 2010 Task Force, whose mandate one would believe, was to ensure that we directly benefit from this sporting event. In no particular order, the first is, who are the people who make the task force? Secondly,  what criteria was used to have these people in the particular institution? and finally what were their key performance areas? That is , where do we stand now that the World Cup is starting today and these individuals have not even brought a single country here for a warm-up match. How much money was put into this noble exercise and how much of it has been used and in what way? How much is left and since the World Cup will be gone in a month, what will the rest be put into?

That said, there is also the aspect of corporate relationship which seems to be an area we overlooked. How did the so-called task force, relate for example with transport providers, the likes of Air Botswana, AT&T etc? What was the relationship between the Ministry of Sport and that of Tourism in this regard? Did the team that made the task force have all key stakeholders in its team and who were they reporting to?

The major cause of concern is that we were kept satisfied, with fabrications. We were told time and again that at the least, the so-called task force will deliver, at the very least, a team to come here for a practice session before proceeding to the World Cup.

That notwithstanding, it is fair to say without prevarications that the task force was in its entirety a massive failure of a team and not only have they betrayed the nation's trust, but have also proven to be a group which cannot be trusted with national resources. It would be fair to say the team's appreciation of the dynamics of the relationship between sports and tourism is questionable.

To emphasise this point, we start first at looking at infrastructural development in relation to this greatest sporting event. Roads were closed under the pretext that they were being readied for the coming of the World Cup. Football stadiums across the country were closed under the same pretext and SSKI airport is still undergoing development.  When you look at the fact that these facilities are still undergoing developments at this juncture, it indicates a country that does not know a great opportunity when it sees one hence the questions of the relevance of the task force.

In very serious countries that identify the World Cup as a great opportunity for economic redemption, the issue is a matter that was upon the presidents' desks as a key priority not only for the World Cup specifically but for longer future.  But the silence which has come from our president when we are in the midst of missing such an opportunity testifies massive failure on his side. Specifically as an advocate of delivery, President Ian Khama has failed to deliver on this one and he owes the nation an apology, unless he says he was too ignorant to identify the capacity of the World Cup, only a few kilometers away, to add value to the growth and development of the country.

How did the first ever Sports Pitso a well-concieved consultative forum, fail to realize and make amongst its deliverables, the delivery of one team out of the 36 to play a single game with us?

There is here again the matter of what else can the government, after failure with the task force, do in the entertainment aspect?

In going forward then, what lessons would we have learnt from missing this opportunity and what is our preparedness for other events of such a magnitude. Let me here relate to the upcoming CAF 2013 Championships. With countries descending the other side of the border, such would have helped in preparedness of the team ahead of their encounter with Tunisia which, by the way, got a warm-up friendly in readiness for us by playing France a couple of weeks back.

In conclusion, the so-called 2010 task force and the leadership of the government of Botswana, have dismally failed the populace in relation to the World Cup. For Ministers to be making simplistic statements like South Africa was selfish with the World Cup when teams played in Zimbabwe is unfortunate and for patriots and passionate sports people a little irritating. Such vocabulary has to cease forthwith.

Shouldn't we be thinking of fan parks given that we have squandered many such opportunities?

*Comfort Exotic 'Bigfish' Ramatebele is managing director of BigRamaFish Productions a sports promotions company.