Mikia Kalati
A NEW government led by Prime Minister Thomas Thabane was inaugurated last week and naturally there are high expectations from different sections of the populace that this will usher in a new era of political, social and economic developments to take the country to a higher pedestal.
The sporting fraternity is not immune from also hoping for new policies that will ensure the kind of growth that would enable Lesotho to take its pride of place at the highest echelons of world-beating sporting achievements.
Improving the standards of sports has never been a priority for politicians and governments in this country but it can no longer be business as usual.
Gone are the days sports were an amateurish past time hobby. Sport has become a lucrative industry with athletes in different disciplines raking in millions of American dollars’ worth from their talents and more from endorsements.
But there is a different and painful reality for our athletes as though we are actually living in another planet different from others. There is no denying that despite their talents, most of our athletes are struggling to get by and they wallow in poverty.
There are no relevant support structures to enable them to realise their full potential and those who have succeeded have done so in spite of and not because of government and our sports associations.
The few that have managed to make a decent living are mostly long distance runners who regularly compete and win South African races that offer sizeable rewards.
Lesotho needs to catch up with global trends sooner rather later and for that to happen, government must invest money, time and resources to develop and support athletes to reach their full potential.
It must be said that sport is now a multi-billion dollar global industry deserving as much attention as any other economic sector. There is no government worth its salt that can seriously claim to be promoting economic development and fighting poverty while ignoring sport.
Prior to the 3 June snap elections that ushered in the new government, I interviewed different leaders whose parties contested the polls and all of them including the new prime minister vowed to do more for sports development.
I might as well as remind the honourable premier as well as the legislators that the paltry M7million budget that was allocated to the sports mother body, the Lesotho Sports and Recreation Commission (LSRC) to share with the sports associations is way too little.
It is one of the reasons why Lesotho continues to fare badly at major sporting events.
Our athletes have next to zero training facilities and there is never any money to ensure adequate preparations ahead of competitions.
But this situation was not divinely ordained and can thus be changed, only if our government can come to the party and invest in sport.
Any meaningful government intervention would surely act like a magnet in attracting the corporate world to follow suit and up their support.
There is also no doubt that sport has also been affected by the perennial political instability that has been this country’s portion over the past five years.
The onus is certainly on the new government to chart a new course for a new dispensation in which sport and other sectors of the country’s life would thrive.
They must deliver on their election promises and it helps that apart from the All Basotho Convention, the new coalition includes the Basotho National Party whose leader, Thesele Maseribane is a former sports ministers who also had a spell in sports administration.
I also know that Dr Thabane and his Alliance of Democrats colleague, Monyane Moleleki are passionate about football and I trust that will inspire them to improve the budget allocation for sport.
In an unrelated development, I would like to take my hat off to former Bantu and Likuena defender, Tlali’ Cabazela’ Maile who has retired from football.
This is a man who served his country with pride and respect and deserves to be celebrated after a career that lasted almost two decades.
One of the many things that earned Maile so much respect among his peers and the football fraternity was his humility.
He was a leader on and off the field and not surprisingly all the coaches he played under made him captain.
There is no doubt that he has been an excellent role model and youngsters should emulate him.
He was also in the Lesotho side that were the first time to qualify for the Africa Youth Championship in 2005 and I feel this country has not done enough to honour him.
