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Keketsi, Sebusiso
Lesotho
Ministry of Gender and Youth, Sports and Recreation
Sports and Recreation as Principal Sport and Recreation Officer
2nd Batch Graduate |
Q1. Please introduce yourself.
My name is Sebusiso Keketsi an Olympian, and a graduate student from Dream Together Master, I am a married man with a 6 years old daughter. I grew up with boxing, and I am currently working for the Ministry of Gender and Youth, Sports and Recreation as a Principal Sport and Recreation Officer. On the other hand, I am serving in the National Boxing Federation as a National Coach.
Q2. Please describe your responsibilities and roles as a Principal Sport and Recreation Officer at the Ministry of Gender, Youth and Sport, Lesotho.
I am in charge of advising the departmemt in facilities development, and also designing and implementation of mass participation programs that involve talent identification and healthly living. I am also in charge of monitoring sport and recreation programs at district level. Lesotho is preparing to host 2020 reagional games which attracts 10 countries, and I am part of Team Lesotho and in charge of designing programs for team Lesotho.
Q3. What was your proudest moment in your career?
I came back to my country as a different person who received a master’s degree from Seoul National University. The impact of Dream Together Master program was converted into reality when I led the boxing team for the 2016 Rio Olympic Games and became the first boxing coach who has qualified for the Olympic Games as an athlete and also as a coach in Lesotho. This was a great achievement not only for me but also the country. Sydney 2000 Olympic Games was the last time that the country qualified for the Olympic Games, and I was one of only two boxers who qualified and represented the country there. So it took more than a decade for the country to qualify for the Olympics in Boxing.
Q4. What part of your job was the most challenging?
Sport is still perceived as just a “game” and as a result, it is mostly administered and run by unqualified volunteeres. It has never been easier for me to settle and excecute my work effectively. Most of the time, I have to be in the administrative and techinical level. I got promoted to the current position in 2011, and this was a manegarial position. It has never been easy to execute my duties effectively and efficiently due to lack of administrative knowledge. This became even worse as we have been operating with an outdated 1996 sport spolicy. I have been in an organization which was trying to get the right direction. The other challenge was to coordinate the administrative issues together in the technical aspects. Our federations are administered by volunteers and most of them are not qualified. It has never been easier to operate effectively within the federation and also with people who spend most of the productive time out of sport.
[Duirng DTM’s visit to Korea Institute of Sport Science .]
Q5. How does the Dream Together Master help you with your job?
Operating in an organization that is in the process of amending its outdated sport policy and sport act makes it difficult to effectively achieve organizational goals. The knowledge acquired from DTM program prepared me to face the reality back home and also to contribute in a positive way in the development of sport in Lesotho. I am now able to operate in a managerial position and also breaching the gap from the administrative to the technical level. Witin the limited time, I managed to leaded boxing team that qualified for the Olympic games, it became easier to understand the needs of the athletes and also to convince the administrators about how best the athletes can be assisted. Through DTM, I managed to mobilize resources and also attracted potential sponsors into boxing, regardless the admistrative challenges it faces. I also contributed and assisted the National Boxing Federation in achieving the award of the 2017 Federation of the year. In 2016, I received an award of the coach of the year. In 2017, I qualified and attended Coaches Developer Program in Japan. If it was not because of DTM, I could not have made it in that program. I am incharge of technical programs for National Boxing Federation, and it is esier to apply the knowledge acquired from DTM program and that assist in desiging effective and efficient programs.
