MASERU –Team Lesotho’s participation at the 2019 All Africa Games is in doubt given that funds are not yet available for the tournament scheduled for Morocco from August 16 – 30. This emerged on Tuesday during a press briefing held by the Lesotho Sports and Recreation Commission (LSRC) in Maseru.

LSRC spokesperson Teboho Rakhomo said the commission had budgeted M8.5 million for this financial year but Parliament was only able to allocate M2 million.Rakhomo said even the allocated sum had not yet been released to them, hence the current state of affairs within the commission. “The commission relies on government subvention but we have not prepared anything yet for the team. But where associations concerned are able to get funding from their international partners, they are free to use the funds for preparing for international events such as the All Africa Games,” he said.

Rakhomo was quick to warn that should Team Lesotho fail to honour the All Africa Games, serious penalties would be imposed on Lesotho as the games are mandatory to all the member states.He said the LSRC had already appointed Ts'epang ’Mantutle as the Chef de Mission for team Lesotho to the games. He said had things been normal, 'Mantutle would have long left for Morocco in order to go and prepare for the team. “We would like to go over there and compete, not just to add numbers, but as things stand there is a serious challenge,” Rakhomo said. 

The participants, he added needed to be mentally and physically ready to compete, showing that they had not been able to get international friendly games from the neighbouring nations like South Africa and Botswana in preparation for the games.For his part, 'Mantutle said Lesotho had prepared a team that comprised athletes, boxers, cyclists, taekwondo and tennis players as well as weightlifters. He said while the other sporting codes and their respective associations had already submitted their list of contestants, the Lesotho Amateur Athletics Association (LAAA) was yet to submit its own.