Pascalinah Kabi
MASERU — Lesotho is tomorrow scheduled to leave the country for the Supreme Council of Sports in Africa (SCSA) games in Lusaka, Zambia.
The games are scheduled to run from December 8 – 17.
Lesotho is expected to take part in disciplines such as boxing, netball, athletics, tennis, football and athletics paralympics.
Team Lesotho general manager, Retselisitsoe Lephaila, on Friday confirmed this development to the Sunday Express on Friday.
“We are likely to leave on Monday and Team Lesotho’s official sending off will be held the same day at 7am,” Lephaila said.
He said there were a couple of things that needed to be addressed before the team could depart for Lusaka.
“We still need to collect attire from Bloemfontein (Saturday) and there are also a number of things we need to sort out before we leave,” he said.
Chef de mission Moipone Mashale had earlier in the week told the Sunday Express that they had failed to go into camp due to lack of funds.
“Lesotho Sports and Recreation Commission coaching board advised us against holding our first training camp during the winter (June/July) break as it had not had a significant impact on these games.
“We were advised to then postpone the camp to the Independence break in October and to have weekend training camps soon after October,” Mashale said.
She said they failed to hold these weekend training camps because of lack of money.
“After the October training camp, unfortunately the money was not released for the weekend camps but all sporting codes except football held commuting weekend training sessions for their players,” Mashale said.
“It would not have been a wise move for us to allow the children to report for camp on Sunday (last week) while we don’t know where we will get the money to pay for such expenses,” she said.
She said they fail to understand why the ministry failed to process SCSA funding well in time.
“After every SCSA games, we report back to the ministry in January.
“The report includes all necessary details that can help the country prepare and perform better next time but that has not worked to our advantage,” Mashale said.
She challenged the country to take these games seriously if the country is to excel internationally.
“For South Africa this is the beginning of its roadmap to 2016 as they used these games to identify talent for the All Africa Games, Commonwealth and later Olympic Games,” Mashale said.
“But for us we take them lightly yet these children are expected to perform to their best without adequate resources,” she said.
She said the sports ministry, LSRC and Lesotho National Olympic Committee must engage in serious talks before it is too late.
“The ministry, LSRC and LNOC must start having consultative meetings as these games can be used as a solid development structure for the country,” Mashale said.