Initially, the games were scheduled to take place from June 6-15 but the games will now be held from July 4-13. Speaking to MmegiSport, BNSC director sport development, Peaceful Seleka, said they have decided to drop football (boys), volleyball (boys), karate, and basketball (girls) from the team due to financial constraints. “The preparations for the AUSC Region 5 Games are ongoing and on course. A number of National Sport Associations (NSA) that are part of the games have already organised preparatory camps. There were no qualifications for the games,” he said. NSAs that will form Team Botswana are athletics, athletics for the visually impaired, basketball (boys), boxing, judo, football (girls), netball, swimming, Special Olympics, tennis, table tennis, and volleyball (girls). The decision to drop some codes from the team has sent shockwaves across codes. Basketball president, Mothusi Thipe, said Botswana's performance has been declining in the AUSC Region 5 Games. “Without school sport, the games are the shortest cut to sport development and the BNSC should be spending money to prepare the team,” he argued.
Thipe said there was no need to cut the team because Region 5 Games are government games, it is not about the number of medals but to give players exposure. “We are lagging in sport development. The long list for the Region 5 Games was closed in January, it is not true that the Matlhagolatsela initiative is used to select the team. We must walk the talk, we cannot advocate for school sport and cut the teams at AUSC Region 5 Games, that is our litmus of school sport status,” he added. In 2022, Botswana finished fifth with 47 medals, a drop from position two in 2020. Volleyball vice president-administration, Ndibo Lebala said volleyball has been part of the Region 5 Games since 2018. He said the boys’ team won a gold medal becoming the only team sport to be champions while the girls settled for silver. “The team was also retained in Lesotho where the boys once again won gold and girls finished in silver medal position. In 2022, we went to Lilongwe, Malawi, the boys started feeling the effect of the absence of school sport and finished in position four while girls won gold,” he said.
