The Botswana National Olympic Committee (BNOC) finance committee chairperson, Enoch Mushango, has said the ministry's budget will depend on how sport and arts are prioritised. He said if the two are priorities, then they do not expect a cut, but if there is a reduction, it should be done objectively. “A reduction would also show that it is time for sport to come up with self-sustaining activities, which other partners and sponsors wish to see,” Mushango said. He added that there should be a sport policy, which gives direction followed by a strategy that is in alignment with the policy. “This is cascaded down to the BNOC National Sport Commission (BNSC), National Sport Associations (NSA) and clubs. All these bodies formulate strategic objectives aligned with the ministerial strategy and initiatives to implement the strategies. Budgeting is guided by these initiatives. If there are no adequate funds allocated, this means that the objective will not be achieved,” he said.
For her part, the Botswana Volleyball Federation (BVF) president, Tsoseletso Magang, said the sport budget needs responsible spending. She said there has always been sporadic spending that disadvantaged sport codes. “In some instances when the senior men's football national team, the Zebras had gone to play a qualifying match, a lot of money will be spent on them. Sport used to be in the same ministry as Youth and Gender. This time around I do not expect the same amount which was received in the last financial year but I am hoping for a relative amount. For me, our budgets should be taken into consideration and allocated according to what we have budgeted for. We need to develop sport in Botswana, our sport is only in towns. We are so reliant on Re Ba Bona Ha programme,” she said. Magang said by now Re Ba Bona Ha could have expanded across the country, being run by the same funds from the government, not depended on sponsorship from the Debswana Diamond Company. “Do we ever stop and evaluate the impact it has made so far and publicise that information? Instead, we just get reports of a few projects that they do. If that accounts for sport development, then we have a problem. I wish that whatever we get, let us spend it in the right places. Let most of it go into programmes that develop young people, into programmes that get Batswana to be physically active,” Magang said. She said recommendations from the 2024 Sport Pitso should be implemented such as infrastructure development.
