BOTESSA remains in debt after the CUCSA games

 

After successfully hosting Confederations of University and College Sports Association (CUCSA) Games back in June 2018, Botswana Tertiary Student Sports Association (BOTESSA) are still owing suppliers, University of Botswana and Curry Pot Catering company, an outstanding balance of P1.7m.

This was confirmed by BOTESSA Public Relations Officer, Duncan Segabo in an interview with BG Sport this week. BOTESSA PRO said their initial budget was P 5.5 Million but they only managed to get P3Million and could not raise the remaining balance. “We are currently owing UB P500 000.00 as we were using the Indoor Sports Arena and Curry Pot Company 1.2 Million as other countries pulled out of the tournament in the last minutes forcing us to abide by the original contract to provide all the participants with food,” he said

Meanwhile, at an Annual General Meeting (AGM) held in Maun this past week, Segabo said they discussed pertinent issues, “The unfortunate resignation of our President Herbert Letsebe due to health reasons called for immediate elections as per the Constitution. It is stated that when the person assuming the Presidency role is no longer able to carry out his/her duties due to health reasons, the person is bound to be replaced through means of elections which are slated for early January next year. Additionally, the Vice-President Keorapetse Setlhare has since assumed this role as Acting-President for the meantime,” said the PRO.

The former President, Herbert Letsebe confirmed his resignation, “The association must not suffer because of my health, and the matters of the body must be pushed forth. However, my health comes first, I was hit by heart attack back in August this year and I have been under hospital care. The doctors have advised me to stay away from sports for at least a year,” said Letsebe.

Still at the AGM, on one of the matters, financial audit reports were presented, “Finances by external auditors, Tariq and Cassim suggested that all of our revenue books are okay despite the still existing debt which we are resolving. The 2019 budget was presented and approved by the Assembly,” said Segabo According to Segabo, there has been some recent change in personnel which were also confirmed at the AGM.

These entails Mompoloki Keakile of Botswana College of Engineering and Technology (BCET) being endorsed as Vice-President Administration by the General Assembly. Thukgamo Nyati from Gaborone Technical College (GTC) has replaced Dr. Melusi Ramphard of Botswana University of Agriculture and Natural Science Resources (BUAN) into the BOTESSA Executive as Treasurer.

For his part, BOTESSA Acting-President Setlhare said they are prepared to do more in terms of organising sporting events, “We want to organise sports events, attract sponsors and most essentially help the association not to incur many debts if at all we are to host any event in future,” he said.