Individuals in Botswana have reacted with outrage on social media after the federal government requested residents to donate cash to reward the nation’s historic gold-medal successful Olympic workforce.
The fund can be a approach for residents to honour the athletes by “contributing rewards to our champions”, mentioned the federal government in an announcement on Monday.
Letsile Tebogo introduced glory to Botswana after he turned the primary African athlete to win the lads’s 200m on the Olympics, bringing house the nation’s first ever gold medal.
However the authorities’s request for donations has halted celebrations for some, who query why their taxes aren’t getting used to reward the Olympians.
“We’re already paying tax, give our champions [sic] cash from the federal government purse,” raged one person on Fb.
The Botswana authorities didn’t reply to the BBC’s request for remark and it’s unclear if they’re additionally contributing to the reward pot.
“I might like to donate in help of the boy’s historic achievement, however sadly, I’m presently an unemployed electrical engineering graduate with a bachelor’s diploma,” one person mentioned.
One other recommended that the cupboard lead by instance and donate 25% of their salaries.
Different nations in Africa have usually rewarded the winners of Olympic gold medals, or the Africa Cup of Nations, with homes or lump sums of money.
Botswana has one of many highest ranges of revenue per head in Africa, but in addition one of many world’s highest charges of youth unemployment, in accordance with Afrobarometer.
Though Botswana is likely one of the world’s largest producers of diamonds, the southern African nation has just lately skilled a stoop in diamond revenues, forcing the federal government to chop spending, in accordance with Bloomberg.
Regardless of the objection to the fund, there have been some voices of help for the Olympic reward pot.
One individual enthusiastically recommended the fund be opened for anybody throughout the continent to ship cash.
“Open it to all Africans, I need to contribute from Kenya,” mentioned one voice of help.
Tebego set an African document 19.46 seconds within the 200m, and likewise gained a silver medal within the males’s 4x400m relay alongside his teammates.
On Tuesday, tens of 1000’s of individuals gathered within the Nationwide Stadium within the capital, Gaborone, to welcome the Olympic workforce house after President Mokgweetsi Masisi declared it a half-day vacation.
