MASERU — Lesotho may fail to send a team to the Supreme Council for Sport in Africa Zone VI Under-20 Youth Games in Swaziland next month.
That’s because the government has not yet released the M2 million budgeted for the team for the regional meet.
The games are scheduled to run from December 9 to 14.
Lesotho Sports and Recreation Commission (LSRC) chief executive officer Kholoang Mokalanyane yesterday told the Lesotho Times they were stuck.
“The preparations are not going well because we have not received the money for these games,” he said.
“We are stuck and do not know how to move forward as we are approaching the games and the last camp was expected to take place two weeks before the games start.”
Mokalanyane said they had originally budgeted M3 million for the games but were told to cut down to M2 million by the Ministry of Sports.
“Originally we had budgeted M3 million for these games but the ministry instructed us to decrease it to M2 million,” he said.
Mokalanyane said the LSRC expected the money to be deposited into its bank account by September.
“That has not happened and we do not know the reasons,” he said.
Mokalanyane said the LSRC was set to meet over the crisis before the end of this week.
“We will take a decision before the end of this week but the meeting is likely to recommend that we write to the ministry regarding this matter,” he said.
The LSRC boss said even if the money were to be finally released the athletes chosen to represent the country in Swaziland would not have enough time to prepare.
“The team was supposed to camp for two weeks before the games start on December 9 but we do not know what to do now that we don’t have the money for the games,” he said.
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