Local players fail in SA Leagues

August 15, 2019, 12:55 am

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For the past few years Botswana Premier League (BPL) exports to the lucrative Premier Soccer League (PSL) of South Africa have declined at an alarming rate despite local clubs having good relations with South African teams. Although local players made a break into the ABSA Premiership in recent years, their stint is shortlived in their respective clubs except a few in the likes of Diphetogo Selolwane and Mogogi Gabonamong during their era. This year alone Botswana players at the PSL stands at two being Lesenya Ramoraka and Mogakolodi Ngele playing for Highlands Park and Black Leopards respectively. It has been a rough patch for local players since last season when Kabelo Seakanyeng was released by his former club Chippa United. As if that was not enough the same predicament befell Mpho Kgaswane at Baroka FC despite him enjoying game time and preforming well. From the few players who remained the expectation was that Kabelo Dambe will stay longer and fight for his place in the team, however he was released by Bloemfontein Celtics and returned home to join Township Rollers while Mwampole Masule never tasted action while he was reported to be with Chippa United in the last six months.…

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Chaminuka joins TAFIC

August 21, 2019, 6:34 am

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Francistown-based football club, TAFIC have secured the services of Zimbabwean gaffer, Saul Chaminuka. TAFIC chairman, Carlos Sebina, told this publication that Chaminuka will be assisted by Shine Maleke. “Our new coach arrived in Botswana last week Friday and he has been attending our training sessions to access players so that he can decide how to beef up the squad ahead of the new season,” the seemingly elated Sebina divulged. Sebina said currently they are processing Chaminuka’s work and residence permits for him to resume his duties in earnest. “We are just hopeful that we will be able to complete all the necessary paper work. Chaminuka passed the interview for the coaching position and we strongly belief that he will help our club to compete and maintain its premier league status,” he added. TAFIC’s long-time servant, another Zimbabwe coach, Elias Chinyemba together with his assistant, Lovemore Mokgweetsi have been relegated to the club’s under 19. Chinyemba, a reliable servant to Machimenyenga – as TAFIC are known by its legion of supporters – does not possess the necessary qualifications to coach at the elite league, that is why the team management decided to look for a more qualified and experienced coach to…

Mixed reaction to P7, 6m BPL sponsorship

August 21, 2019, 6:52 am

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Barclays Bank of Botswana, soon to be called Absa, is the new sponsor of the local Premier soccer league. The bank announced a P7.6 million two-year sponsorship for the league on Wednesday. The new sponsorship follows the exit of Botswana Telecommunications (BTC) which has been sponsoring the premier league to the tune of P39 million three-year contract, which the BFA signed with the telecom company in 2017. BTC has been sponsoring the Premier League since 2009, and has seen cash prize money for winners being P1 million. The new premier league sponsorship has received mixed reactions from clubs officials and football analysts. Football analyst Jimmy George said the sponsorship is welcome though he expressed concern that the sponsorship money is not enough to run the league for two consecutive seasons. George said the costs of running premier league are very high and insisted that there is fear of whether the sponsorship could cover all the premier league teams’ monthly grants. He said the P1.2 million that is drawn from the sponsorship for development could have been allocated its own budget or at least BFA could have opted to look for separate development sponsor. Tankiso Morake, Jwaneng Galaxy Public Relations Officer,…

Team Botswana upbeat

August 21, 2019, 6:56 am

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… Leaves for All Africa Games Team Botswana is optimistic of obtaining positive results at the two-week 12th edition of the All Africa games set for Rabat, Morocco from August 19 -31, 2019. Botswana has sent a strong team of close to 103 athletes who will compete in 11 sporting codes being tennis, athletics, karate, volleyball, cycling, boxing, taekwondo, chess, weightlifting, swimming and Judo. Botswana National Sports Commission (BNSC) and Botswana National Olympic Committee (BNOC) have been busy preparing for the games after government released close to P18 million for preparations. Though athletics has a very good record of bringing positive results at the games, a lot of changes are expected this year as most of the athletes are looking forward to prove their mettle amongst the best on the continent. Karate is one of the codes which will be looking forward to dethrone athletics as evidenced by their recent performances on the international stage. The karate team is still oozing with confidence after competing in the Africa Senior Cup, which was held in Gaborone last month. The team boosts of 21 karatekas, which means the prospects of bringing as many medals as possible is an achievable task. According to…

Judo team flops at All Africa Games

August 27, 2019, 2:35 am

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The local judo team has been sent packing in the early stages of the ongoing Africa games in Morocco following first round exist for many of the athletes. The team, which comprised of Edwin Sello, Tirelo Lekoko, Letlhogile Tsheko, Gwafila Tema, Happy Taukobong ,Victoria Leagajang and Lucky Mabaka – all lost in the first round of the competition except for one judoka Thato Lebang who managed to progress to the second round. Though judo has continuously shown great growth over the years with emergence of athletes like Gavin Mogopa who went on to qualify for Olympics, this is one of the dismal performance for the code. The bad display has been attributed to poor preparations since the team mostly prepared for the tournament by training locally though the government released close to P18 million towards the preparation of the games. According to a source close to the developments, it was very critical for martial sports to embark on international training camps and learn from the best countries from across the globe. “Since funds were released teams like karate and judo should have gone on training camps outside the country. With that we could have achieved better results. Camps in Asian…

Did the BNSC fail athletes?

August 27, 2019, 2:43 am

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As two boxers are blocked from participating in All Africa Games · Boxing blames BNSC/BNOC · Gaseitsiwe says they were not informed of the rules Fresh information from the ongoing All Africa Games in Rabat, Morocco suggest that two of Botswana boxers will no longer take part in the tournament after the competition rules vetted them out. Following the technical meeting on Tuesday night, Kobamelo Molatlhegi and Treasure Moremi were dropped from the team after it was discovered that their weight divisions fell out of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics standard weights. Molatlhegi and Moremi are in the 49kg and 60kg men’s weight categories. Following their exit, Botswana team has remained with only six male pugilists being Mmusi Tswiige, Pitso Mmopiemang, Mohammad Otukile, and George Molwantwa while the ladies section has Aratwa Kasemang, Keamogetse Kenosi and Lethabo Modukanele. Prior to the competition the team had high hopes of improving their chances of qualifying for 2020 Olympic Games in vast numbers through fielding all of their boxers. Now, a target of four medals which Botswana Boxing Association (BoBA) had set for itself have been dented greatly. Botswana now has boxers in only 52, 57, 63, and 69 kg weight divisions. According to…

Non-complying clubs face RELEGATION

August 27, 2019, 2:45 am

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· CAF’s stern warning forces BFA’s hand · Clubs leave beyond means; have no offices; pay players late · Clubs face P5000 fines; deduction of points Botswana Football Association (BFA) has vowed to take some stern measures against clubs that do not comply with club licensing requirements. Club licensing was introduced two years back locally in line with global standards with the sole aim of improving professionalism in the sport. However as of now it is still hard for local clubs to comply with the requirements with most teams still run as societies. According to the club licensing manual, clubs should have levels of management and organisation management which means players should be subjected to medical tests before signing contracts as well as for clubs to have running offices and youth development teams. As of 2017 Township Rollers, Orapa United, Jwaneng Galaxy, Police XI and Security Systems were the only clubs which were issued with full licenses after complying with the standards set while 11 other teams were given provisional licenses with clear instructions to make some improvements. These included Extension Gunners and Gaborone United. Though in the past clubs have been threatened with suspension if they fail to comply…

TAFIC launch players hub

September 3, 2019, 4:54 am

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The newly promoted Francistown premier league based side; TAFIC Football Club has embarked on an ambitious plan of turning into a players development hub in the northern region. Briefing the media ahead of the start of the premier league season, club Chairperson Carlos Sebina said to achieve their ambitious dream the club has resuscitated their under 15, 17, and 19 that will feed the senior team. Sebina observed that their ambition is to ensure that their young players dominate youth national teams. “To ensure that we realize our dream, we have appointed our former coach, Elias Chinyemba as our under 19 coach. We have told Chinyemba that our intension is that in the next two to three years, as TAFIC we will no longer spend money to buy new players but rather we will be promoting players from our development structures. We want to generate revenue by selling players from our development sides,” the optimistic Sebina divulged. He added that even this season, they were recruiting younger players which is in line with their strategy. He emphasized that they appointed Saul Chaminuka as the new TAFIC coach after realizing that he has a good record and he is an experienced…

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Your gold medalists!

September 5, 2019, 11:08 pm

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While Team Botswana stood to increase its medal tally on the last day of the All Africa Games in Morocco on Saturday, at the time of going to print the team had already won five gold medals, three silver and six bronze medals. Gold medals were won by 4 x 400m men’s relay, Leungo Scotch in 400m men, Galefele Moroko 400m ladies, boxer Rajab Otukile and Sadie Kenosi. The women’s 4 x 400m relay won silver. In the last games the team had got 14 medals and as things stand they are set to get more. The team has qualified for the finals in 200m men and women, 400m hurdles women and High Jump men. Already positioned 12 among the competitors, the team has surpassed the position 14 they had garnered in the last Games. An overjoyed chef de mission, Bobby Gaseitsiwe, said: “I am humbled and happy to have led this young and very talented team. I remained hopeful for more medals. The future looks very bright for these athletes.” 

The Mares make history

September 10, 2019, 7:41 am

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…Dump Banyana Banyana out Tokyo 2020 qualifiers The senior women’s national soccer team, The Mares, has taken a giant step towards qualifying for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics by defeating the much fancied South Africa’s Banyana-Banyana at Orlando Stadium. The local lasses put up a spirited fight against the mighty South Africa to force a 3-2 win on penalties after a goalless draw in 150 minutes of football. The win was a sweet victory for the local ladies after searching for a win against Banyana in nine attempts. The players have been offered cash incentives by the Botswana Football Association (BFA) for their sterling performance. They are set to take on Zambia on two-legged ties to seek a spot in the fourth round of the qualifiers. Botswana’s impressive performance has been attributed to the good efforts of BFA to send the team to an international training camp. In August the team spent almost two weeks in Slovakia where they played a number of local sides and trained in high quality training centres to prepare well for the do or die encounter against Banyana Banyana. The arrangement led to the team missing this year’s COSAFA Cup, something which attracted criticism from many…

Botswana netball rankings fall

September 10, 2019, 7:45 am

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Botswana netball continues to go down the international rankings following inactivity of the national teams in International Netball Federation (INF) recognised tournaments. Following the release of the new rankings Botswana currently occupies spot number 26th in the stream of 43 teams with INF world rankings. Botswana was ranked 21st in 2017, the best ranking ever for the country in the history of netball. However limited games and a string of poor results led to the team falling gradually to 25th in June this year. The latest rankings reflect performances from all games which were played from the beginning of July. In the INF system it is only the senior national teams which are ranked and since Botswana side has not been active they have not accumulated any points in a long period of time. With the current status of netball, Botswana risk exiting the rankings since 43 nations are enlisted in the rankings worldwide, and hence the prolonged lack of action for the team will lead to continual fall in rankings. “If we are not playing there is no how we will go up, we need to play more rankings games. When we are not playing other countries, which are…

Botswana netball rankings fall

September 10, 2019, 7:45 am

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Botswana netball continues to go down the international rankings following inactivity of the national teams in International Netball Federation (INF) recognised tournaments. Following the release of the new rankings Botswana currently occupies spot number 26th in the stream of 43 teams with INF world rankings. Botswana was ranked 21st in 2017, the best ranking ever for the country in the history of netball. However limited games and a string of poor results led to the team falling gradually to 25th in June this year. The latest rankings reflect performances from all games which were played from the beginning of July. In the INF system it is only the senior national teams which are ranked and since Botswana side has not been active they have not accumulated any points in a long period of time. With the current status of netball, Botswana risk exiting the rankings since 43 nations are enlisted in the rankings worldwide, and hence the prolonged lack of action for the team will lead to continual fall in rankings. “If we are not playing there is no how we will go up, we need to play more rankings games. When we are not playing other countries, which are…

BTC injects P5 million into the premier league

September 12, 2019, 1:21 am

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Following a broken down relationship between Botswana Premier League (BPL) and Botswana Telecommunications Corporation(BTC) towards the end of last season, the two parties have mutually agreed on P5 million sponsorship deal for the 2019/2020 season .In the initial contract which was penned in 2017 BTCL did commit an amount of P13 million per season but following breach of contract by the BPL the two parties settled for a reduced amount just for BTC to finish up their contract which ends this season. The new amount marks a reduction in the sponsorship by 62% which is equivalent to the P8 million which has been scrapped off. Key amongst the issues which led to BTC opting for low figures is the failure to meet the agreed number of games to be broadcast live on television. As part of the 2017 deal 60 games were to be beamed live but only achieved 42 by the time the league concluded last season. Therefore this was a financial lose to BTC due to lose of mileage. However despite the reduced sponsorship BTCL still remains as the title sponsor of the premier league. Speaking at the launch of the sponsorship BTCL Chief Operations Officer Edward Wicks…

ATHLETICS GOING FOR GLORY AS WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS EDGES CLOSER

September 12, 2019, 3:04 am

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*Thebe out due to injury *Makwala missed out on qualifying for the championships Following a great showing at the Africa games in Morocco last month Botswana athletics team is bracing up for a tougher challenge at the IAAF World Championships which are slated for Doha, Qatar from the 27th of September until October the 6th . The team which is currently in camp and under the leadership of coach Justice Dipeba comprise of Galefele Moroko and Christine Botlogetswe in the ladies team ,Ditiro Nzamani, Leungo Scotch, Baboloki Thebe, Nijel Amos and the 4x400m relay teams. Both relay teams qualified for the biennial tournament following a spirited hard work to maintain their spots within the top 16 of the world rankings. When qualification closed on the 6th of September the ladies team was ranked 12th while their male counterparts were ranked 15th a feat which was quite challenging considering that the team had to attend in events in England, Bahamas and Cameroon to gain points. However the sad part is that the team will be without Thebe who has been ruled out due to an injury though he initially qualified for the tournament. The 22 year old sustained a hamstring injury…

BFA rings changes to BPL

September 19, 2019, 12:07 am

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The Botswana Premier League (BPL) and Botswana Telecommunications Corporation (BTC) have put their troubled 2018/19 season behind them and agreed a reduced sponsorship of P5 million for the 2019/2020 season. In the initial contract penned in 2017 BTCL committed P13 million per season. BTC has blamed BPL for the breakdown of relationship after they allegedly breached some provisions of their contract. Key amongst the issues which allegedly led to BTC opting out is the failure by BPL to meet the agreed number of games to be broadcast live on television. As part of the 2017 deal 60 games were to be beamed live but only 42 were beamed at the time the league concluded last season. However despite the reduced sponsorship BTCL still remains as the title sponsor of the premier league. Speaking at the launch of the sponsorship BTCL Chief Commercial Officer Edward Wicks said: “Our commitment to local football has been for over a decade now and we have come together with a new deal so it’s our mandate to put value for this sponsorship and attract people to football in Botswana. A lot has been going around in terms of trying to professionalize the clubs as well…

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BTTA mops up

September 25, 2019, 1:34 am

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The Botswana Table Tennis Association (BTTA) has vowed to take stern measures against clubs which do not comply with the federation’s code of conduct. This forms part of the new committee’s efforts to transform the sport and take it back to glory days. For the past two years table tennis has been dormant without any meaningful activity to the disappointment of players who wanted action. The new committee led by Kudzanani Motswagole wants to change all that – starting with restoring order among members. As of now BTTA has 11 clubs under its fold with only four having paid their affiliation fees to the association and are in good standing with the Registrar of Societies when it comes to submission of yearly returns. Only Nhabe, Smash Maniacs, Kanye and BDF table tennis clubs have complied and are full affiliates. The remaining seven clubs amongst them Moshupa Spinners, New Horizon and True Identity are yet to pay affiliation fees. However, the teams have been given three months to comply but failure to do so will attract deregistration from BTTA. During the BTTA Club championship which was held at St Joseph’s College only four fully affiliated teams competed. The affiliation fee is…

Boxers miss World Champs

September 25, 2019, 3:00 am

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Botswana Senior Men national boxing team has missed an opportunity to compete at this years’ World Championship after the technical team made a decision to skip the tournament. The 2019 Championships have been ongoing in Sochi, Russia since the 7th of September. The tournament which for the first time in history was free to almost all the boxers provided a perfect chance for local pugilists to gain some massive experience on the world stage, however the technical staff rather choose to rest the team after a hectic schedule. Ever since July the national team has been on the road preparing for All Africa games. They started their expedition in Zambia for a tournament before heading to Thailand for a training camp and tournament where they spent two weeks. From there the team headed to France where they camped ahead of Africa games which they also competed in at Morocco for a fortnight period. According to Coach Lechedzani Luza they decided to skip the tournament such that the quartet of Mohammed Otukile, Mmusi Tswiige, George Molwantwa and Pitso Mmopiemang can rest and recuperate. “We deliberately decided not to participate because you will remember that we were in Morocco and we arrived…

Sport development gobbles P90 m/yr

September 25, 2019, 3:05 am

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Minister of Youth Empowerment, Sport and Culture Development, Tshekedi Khama has called on local commercial banks to come forth and assist government with the financing of local sport associations and athletes. Speaking at a breakfast meeting he hosted to present a case for the funding of National Sport Associations by potential sponsors on Thursday, the Minister pointed out that government spends P90 million annually on sport development, which he believes is not enough looking at the fact that there is high unemployment rate in the country and the youth are the ones mostly affected. Four banks were represented; Bank Gaborone, Barclays Bank of Botswana, First Capital Bank and Standard Chartered Bank. Barclays, soon to change to Absa, recently signed a sponsorship agreement with the Botswana Football Association to sponsor the elite Premier League at the tune of P7.6 million, following the initial sponsor, Botswana Telecommunication Corporation’s reduction of the sponsorship value. TK, as the Minister is affectionately known, is of the view that having finished 13th at the All Africa Games held in Morocco last month, the country performed well. However, he is skeptical with the caliber of preparation for big competitions such as the All Africa Games and the…

Man of the Match missing!

September 25, 2019, 3:10 am

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The consequences of sponsorship reduction in the Premier League by Botswana Telecommunications Corporation Limited (BTCL) is already being felt particularly by players due to the absence of man of the match awards during games. Ever since the start of the 2019/20 season no player has been awarded the accolade, a situation which has been attributed to lack of funds. For this season BTC has only injected P5 million as the sponsorship for the league, an amount which is far below the previous sponsorships. Although Barclays Bank (ABSA Group) has come on board to splash P7.6 million for the next two seasons, the funding is not enough. The P5 million BTC funding coupled with P3.2 million which Barclays will part ways with for this season only add up to P8.2 million falling short by P4.8 million to reach the P13 million which was projected for this season. Last season the man of the match award winners walked away with P1000 plus P250 airtime courtesy of BTC. However two weeks into the season no player is yet to be rewarded for an outstanding performance in the match. Many pundits are of the view that the absence of the award can have an…

Dinaledi brace for action

October 2, 2019, 1:59 am

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The senior netball national team will not compete at this years’ Africa Netball Championships slated for Cape Town, South Africa from the 18-22 of October. The tournament which is highly recognized by the International Netball Federation(INF) is a ranking event and has attracted nine countries being, Eswatini, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi ,South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe. According to available information, the Africa Championships were to be held long before the Netball World Cup early this year but was postponed to a later date which ended up clashing with Singapore’s Six Nations tournament which Botswana long agreed to compete in during December 2018. Instead Botswana has chosen to snub the continental tournament for a six nations tournament in Singapore dubbed M1 Nations Cup. The competition which is also a ranking tournament will run from the 20th -26th of October at the OCBC Arena and has Namibia, Singapore, Cook Islands, Ireland, Papua New Guinea as participating countries. For now the technical team is conducting final selections from the 27th -30th of September for the squad before playing a friendly game with a Zimbabwean club on 10-11 October before heading to Asia “We are sending our team to Singapore but this championships…