Chris Theko
The two Lesotho sports mother bodies, Lesotho Sports and Recreation Commission (LSRC) and the Lesotho National Olympic Committee (LNOC) signed a Memorandum of Understanding on Wednesday.
The event took place at the LNOC grounds and was honoured by the presence of Moleboheng Mokobocho on behalf of the Minister of Gender and Youth, Sports and Recreation (MGYSR).
Speaking at the event, she said the historical event will be very fruitful for the athletes who are integral part of the deal.
“This a very important aspect of the entire sporting community but above all it is very important to the athletes because the two bodies (LSRC and LNOC) exist to serve those athletes.
She said the ministry will now be saved the trouble of having to share resources towards the two especially where finances are involved.
President of LNOC Tlali Rampooana said the MOU is a ‘marriage’ between the two organisations responsible for sports in the country which will help in curbing the challenges that have been facing the sports fraternity for a long time.
“We are getting into this marriage with the aim of tackling some of the challenges that are currently and have always been facing the two mother bodies, only this time we will be tackling them together.
“This is an agreement to combine our resources and skills to work together. For a long time the two have been working separately but from now on we going to be working together because unity is power,†Rampooana said.
The MOU will see the two working together with no end to the said relationship with the expectation to see the change with the results in the long run. The expectation is to review the agreement as often as possible.
According to the President of the LSRC Advocate Jobo Raswoko some of the challenges they were encountering in their individual capacities needed this kind of a relationship.
Although this was not the first time an MOU has been signed by the two mother bodies, Raswoko said they learned a few lessons from the first time until now when they decided to get into a new one.
“Where two people work together there will always be misunderstandings and also there were no specifications of what we will be working together on in the first MOU. This time around we are going to specify that this is to improve the performance of our athletes,†Raswoko said.
“We looked back and realised that in as much as there was that MOU, it was too general and we never went deep into it and hopefully this time as we go deeper and focus on each challenge specifically we will triumph,†he said.
The first thing that is going to be established with the coming into effect of the MOU is the independent court which will deal with matters of the sports fraternity from the athletes to the associations to avoid sporting matters being handled by the judicial courts’ system.
With the MOU it is said that there is now going to be a distinctive separation of tasks between the two mother bodies where the LSRC will only handle matters of podium performance which is dealing specifically with development. Then it will hand over to LNOC with their high performance program which is responsible for preparing athletes to compete at the highest stages in the world.
