Botswana Golden Grand Prix in doubt
The conundrum surrounding staging of the second edition of the Botswana Golden Grand Prix hangs on the equilibrium with at least two weeks left to the day set for the event, BG Sport has established.
After an announcement was made by World Athletics that Golden Door Sport Agency (GDSA) has lost the rights to stage the much anticipated 2024 edition of the Botswana Golden Grand Prix, it has been a back and forth engagements between all the concerned parties to find a solution to the impasse.
The Director of GDSA, Glody Dude last month accused some individuals and the Botswana National Sport Commission Chief Executive Officer, Tuelo Serufho of sabotaging his project following the termination of his contract to organize the event, with two years remaining of an initial three year agreement with World Athletics.
GDSA took the matter before the court of laws to seek redress and on Wednesday morning, a hearing was done at High Court in Gaborone.
The case which is now being treated as an urgent matter saw the applicant, GDSA, submit for an interdict to have all proceedings to stage the event halted, which has been successful as the interdict was granted.
The decision has thrown further doubt on the possibilities to have everything set for the 14th of April, 2024, as scheduled with the next hearing set for April 5th 2024.
“The issue was brought to court on urgency, an application to interdict the execution of the ongoing preparations for the event; the matter was found to be urgent and the interdict was issued, the interdict is against all parties for now with exemption to the World Athletics, the Ruck Group inc and Robert Wagner, who are yet to be served, but they will be sent emails this week,” legal representative of GDSA, Ishmael Matebele told BG Sport on Wednesday.
Last month, Dube poured his heart out to the public during a press briefing, he shared details of how certain parties including BNSC connived to have the contract of his company terminated by World Athletics, the BNSC denied the accusation and further outlined their efforts in supporting the event since its infancy stages.
“The allegations levelled against the BNSC suggesting that they are party to a scheme to dispossess the Golden Door Sports Agency (GDSA) of the rights to the Botswana Golden Grand Prix are both untruthful and misleading,” the Commission responded at the time.
Both parties, GDSA and BNSC were adamant that the event was likely to continue despite the differences experienced at the time, it however appears that chances are high for the event to not happen on the set date.
“I must be honest, after today [court interdict] it will be very difficult to stage the event, it may not happen, already they are behind time in terms of the preparations. I do understand that they [BNSC] have been in talks with different managers of athletes but contracts haven’t been signed yet so to get everything done in less than two weeks is a tall order,” a source close to the local sport governing mother-body shared.
“They have been given the interim order and that means we cannot do anything until a judgment on the case has been made, that means there won’t be any preparations for the time being and that is all I can say for now,” Communications and Marketing officer at BNSC, Anderson Nlisana told BG Sport when contacted.
There has been accusations and counter-accusations with quarters accusing GDSA of failing to account for some funds while the latter argues that they are not contracted to BNSC and therefore are not obliged to provide their accounts to the local sport governing mother-body.
While a ceasefire between all concerned parties appears to be worlds apart, what is evident though is that the bubble of excitement ahead of this years’ event might not see the light of day.