Moorosi Tsiane
Last weekend was a hectic one for Lesotho’s sporting fraternity.
The Lesotho Off-Road Association gave our youths something to smile about with a motorcycle race at Sethaleng sa Mopapa on Saturday, while there was also a two-day volleyball tournament at Lehakoe Club starting Saturday. In Teyateyaneng, Lioli honoured their stars during a glittering ceremony at Blue Mountain Inn on Saturday evening, while Matlama beat Linare 2-1 in Maputsoe on Sunday in a charity match to celebrate King Letsie III’s 52nd birthday.
The Lesotho Netball Association also held its Annual General Meeting at CTC Hall on Sunday, with Moipone Mashale retaining her position as president for a further three-year term.
Netball was virtually dead for the better part of Mashale’s first term in office due to lack of funding which was supposed to come from government through the Lesotho Sports and Recreation Commission.
Hopefully, both the LNA and other sports associations have learnt that being entirely dependent on government for funding is not ideal and that they need to go out there and look for sponsorship from other sources.
That is why I was really glad to hear that the LNA has now added a public relations and marketing department whose mandate includes looking for money to ensure netball remains alive even if government fails to disburse grants to associations for one reason or the other.
The government cannot surely be the only source of funding for our associations because that money would not be enough for the organisations’ administration as well as developing sport at grassroots level, let alone send teams outside the country for competitions or regularly staging tournaments.
The Sports Commission is mother to 31 associations that all expect money from government, which has since proved impossible, leading to certain sports dying a natural death, forgive the cliché.
On the issue of netball, Mashale faces a huge task in rebuilding the sport following almost two years of inactivity during her opening three-year term.
Teams would first have to start believing in this committee before giving it the support it desperately needs and the LNA should also make sure netball is spread to other districts of the country and not only concentrate on Maseru.
I am aware the association has been holding coaching clinics for primary school teachers, which I believe is a great move. I advise the association to put more effort into this project in order to ensure netball is played seriously at that level. With sound programmes at the grassroots, Lesotho would surely have a strong national team in six or seven years’ time.