As the countdown for the 2024 edition of Africa Elite Boxing Championships continues, local boxers have thrown in the towel before the first round bell.
Botswana Boxing Association (BoBA) is broke, and cannot afford to take boxers to the premier competition in Africa’s amateur boxing scheduled for the 14th-27th of October in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
For the second year running, local pugilists will miss out on a chance to score big financially at Africa’s biggest boxing showpiece.
The team failed to compete at the 2023 edition in Cameroon, Yaoundé.
Back then the failure was blamed on the late arrival of grants from BNSC.
The association’s accounts were credited two weeks before the tournament, giving them very little time to prepare the team for the jaw crunching championship.
BoBA management rightfully made a decision not to send an unfit team to Yaoundé.
Missing out on Africa’s largest and most lucrative boxing competition comes with adverse financial implications for athletes who were likely to gain a lot.
Last year, African Boxing Confederation increased the prize money with gold medal fetching a cool P26, 222.00, silver attracting P130, 000.00 while bronze is set at P65, 000.00
This is the type of money which local boxers can only dream of since local fights do not award any prize money due to lack of sponsors in interclub tournaments and national championships.
The association’s financial struggles were once again the reason the national team was forced to forgo the Olympic qualifiers in Italy in February, instead choosing to focus on the Africa Games in the cities of Accra and Cape Coast in Ghana.
While the two tournaments had overlapping schedules, there were initial plans to assemble two teams for both competitions, but the noble idea had to be shelved due to financial constraints.
According to the BoBA mouthpiece, Gaone Motshwanaesi, they had long resigned to their fate since the beginning of the financial year.
Motshwanaesi said they long new that the association was cash-strapped and would fail to finance some of their programmes.
“We intended to send seven athletes, being four males and three females. We appealed to Botswana National Sports Commission(BNSC) for assistance but were unsuccessful,” he said.
Motshwanaesi said the tournament was budgeted for, but the grant they received was not enough to cover their nakedness.
He said since being relegated to tier two of national sports associations they’ve been struggling to make ends meet as the P300 000 grant they receive is a fraction of what they need to run their affairs.
“The tournament budget was P150 000. That’s half of our total grant blown away in one big swoop,” cried Motshwanaesi.
During their glory days when BoBA was in tier one, the association was assured of a P700 000 grant from the commission which allowed them to finance their calendar of events.
BoBA used to be one of the best performing sports codes in the country, sending excelling boxers to major tournaments without fail.
The sport has suffered over the years, as shown by their conspicuous absence at the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics.
Motshwanaesi is a concerned man, and believes should the status quo remain, Botswana may lose her reputation as one of best boxing nation in the region.
“All international tournaments are important. We lose the much needed international exposure and match fitness, and this may come back to haunt us in the long run,” lamented Motshwanaesi.
