This was revealed by Botswana National Sport Commission (BNSC) chief executive officer, Tuelo Serufho during Sport Pitso, that was held over the weekend in Gaborone. Serufho explained during his presentation that one of the key elements of hosting an international competition is the legacy that remains behind after delivering the competition such as infrastructure development. “We have not had a lot of infrastructure legacy as Botswana. This is not to say there was no legacy from the Netball World Cup, African Youth Games. We were able to develop people who can deliver competitions at international level. But we did not gain quite significantly in terms of infrastructure,” he said. Serufho said in the past, Botswana failed bids include the 2026 Summer Youth Olympic Games (YOG), Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON 2027). He also said currently Botswana Athletics Association (BAA) is bidding to host the 2026 World Athletics Relays. He explained that they did not get guarantee from government to host YOG.
“The reason we fail secure bids or have legacy infrastructure is because our approach is not structured at the moment, in some instances we are told the competition is rotational, it is not as a result of a plan that we have. We have a tendency of late bidding and we do not secure guarantees like we did for the Youth Olympic Games. Due to late bidding, the bid documents are not to the required standards. Sometimes there is no adequate political will behind the bids we are submitting and sometimes we do not have the infrastructure,” Serufho said. He said as a matter of urgency there is need to develop a hosting policy at national level and a strategy.
