Chris Theko
The National Covid-19 Secretariat (NACOSEC) together with the sports task team has agreed to allow sports fans back into the grounds to watch various sports activities.
This follows a meeting held on Friday by the two bodies, Lesotho Football Association and the Sports Ministry.
Sports fans were barred from watching their favourite teams in March 2020 owing to the global Covid-19 outbreak.
Since the pandemic, some sports were allowed to resume on a number of occasions, however, fans were still not allowed to attend any of the games.
The Lesotho Sports and Recreation Commission (LSRC) public relations officer, Teboho Rakhomo confirmed the details of the meeting with Newsday Sports on Tuesday saying the decision was inevitable due to the decreased numbers of the Covid-19 positive cases.
“The truth is sports fans have been obedient and compliant with the restrictions and measures that were put in place to curb the spread of the virus even when some sports activities were allowed to resume, however, they were still not allowed to watch at the grounds,” Rakhomo said.
“And again when you look at the numbers of positive Covid-19 cases, they have gone down a lot. So, we had to really consider how then do we allow the fans to come back to the grounds,” he said.
Prime Minister Dr Moeketsi Majoro in his last Covid-19 national address allowed for sports to return under Covid-19 guidelines when the country moved from level purple to blue, and Rakhomo said with that being the case something had to be done about the fans.
“The decision follows the announcement that was made by the prime minister under the level that we are currently in, allowing the return of sports,” he said.
Rakhomo stated that they had to look at the numbers in terms of the capacity and the type of sport when deciding on the figures.
“In football only 1500 spectators will be allowed for the A-Division league while for premier league only 2500 will be allowed” he said.
The spokesperson mentioned that in the case where no tickets are sold, or grounds are in unsecure venues, the responsibility of adherence lies with the association or event organiser of such an event.
He said should there be none compliance there will be consequences where such a federation or sport code could be penalised and suspended.
“No alcohol will be allowed at the grounds and should there be none compliance, such a sport will face being suspended again because Covid-19 is not over so people should not be reckless,” said Rakhomo.
