Speaking during the Annual General Assembly (AGA) this week, the BNOC president, Colonel Botsang Tshenyego said the subvention as opposed to general expenditure needed in the general course of business has proven inadequate for several years. However, Tshenyego said this year, there has been a slight increase in the operations budget. “Games are the biggest consumer of funding although funding is released directly to the games as projects. The money usually comes on the eve of the games to the extent that we are unable to support the preparations. It is something I believe going forward can be improved,” Tshenyego said. He said the BNOC shall always remain grateful for the support they get from the government, despite the nationwide cash flow hiccup, which the country is experiencing, including international donors.
Furthermore, Tshenyego said the bid for the 2030 and 2034 Commonwealth Games will open early in 2025 and Botswana has the potential to bid, as they were able to bid for AFCON 2027. For her part, the BNOC secretary-general, Dorothy Tlagae-Gaseitsiwe, said this final year of the current strategic plan and the quadrennial cycle from which Botswana participated in at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, ends on a high note. “Botswana was amongst the 204 nations that competed at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games with a team of 14 athletes. This was the same number of athletes that team Botswana sent to the previous edition in Tokyo 2020. Our target was two medals after an impressive bronze medal by the 4x400m relay at the previous edition of the same games. The medal target was achieved with the team attaining two medals, one gold from the men’s 200m as well as silver medal from men’s 4x400m relay. The two medals placed Botswana at position 55 on the overall medal table,” she said.
