Tribute to Quinton-Steele Botes

A mixture of emotions filled my being when I was informed of the passing of one of Namibia’s foremost sports personalities. Quinton-Steele Botes’s death shocked me as it shocked all those who knew him in their own ways. The first thing I did was to think of anyone else who would fill the big boots of a man who gave his life to Namibian athletics, as controversial as he sometimes may have been. As a sports enthusiast myself, I knew about Quinton being a teacher, coach, then lecturer in Human Movement Studies prior to independence. My first encounter with him was when I was hired as a reporter by the Swapo Party newspaper, Namibia Today, in 1991. As part of my brief to get a thorough grounding of the journalism profession I was expected to shadow the senior reporters to events or interviews. As fate would have it, I combined my love for sports with my profession and started shadowing my seniors, Kayele Kambombo and later Esau Mbako, to sports-related media conferences and weekend sports activities all around the city. Athletics was a vibrant sport by then, with track-and-field as well as road-running events happening every weekend. And lo and behold, one would not go there and not find Quinton either directing proceedings as main organisers or coaching his athletes. Or simply being the stadium announcer or commentator, for that matter. He also found something to do and provided good sound bites for us novices in the journalism trade. In the formative years of Namibia’s independence, sport was being governed by the Namibia Sports Council which was later replaced by the statutory body known as the Namibia Sports Commission. The Sports Council, under the directorship of Piet du Plooy, was the main source of news for journalists. Religiously, the Sports Council would organise media conferences every Wednesday to inform the public through the media about happenings in the world of sports. Quinton would use this platform to great effect, to build his own profile which later propelled him into the Sports Consultant, as well as for the codes and sponsors. Single-handedly, or so it seemed at the time, Quinton would invite teams and codes to announce major developments to the media and also ensure that sponsorship handovers were done at the weekly sports media conference. Not only did Quinton gain clout and reputation for being a sports broker but he provided an opportunity for sponsors to gain mileage for their commitment to sports. He is to date the only Namibian who got it right to bring soft drink giants Pepsi and Coca-Cola under one roof to announce their sponsorships to various beneficiaries at one of those Sports Council briefing sessions. Through his association with the now defunct Pizza Palace, which served as one of his many sponsors, Quinton is perhaps also the only Namibian to have had a pizza named after him. He raked in sponsorships by the dozens for his development clinics and attracted technical experts from as far and wide as Germany and closer to home in South Africa. Hundreds of Namibians benefited from his clinics which always served as precursor for the beginning of the school year and local athletics calendar. Such was the charisma of the man that he was loved even by those who loathed him, openly or secretly. He was a firm, fearless man who fought and stood for what he believed in, sometimes even running afoul of conventional practice and raising the ire of officials and athletes some of those whom he worked with. But he always had justification for his actions and more often than not, he was seen cajoling with the very same people he had run-ins with the day before. Saintly he was definitely not, like all mortal visitors on this earth. He had his failings and perhaps for steadfastly standing for what he believed in, he incurred the wrath of those who accused him of favouring only a certain group of athletes while neglecting the rest. One such battle he fought and won in the end was against a short-lived organisation called the Namibia Athletes Representative Organisation (NARO) which campaigned to depose him as the head of athletics. And then there were those who held him directly responsible for causing the sudden departure back to Germany of Willi Gernemann, who was seconded to Namibia’s head coach through a special bilateral agreement between the two governments. Quinton survived those storms and stood tall to the very end. In 2005, I had the privilege of being elected to serve as secretary-general of Khomas Athletics region, with Quinton as the chairman. At that point, athletics was at its lowest ebb. Nothing much was happening and Khomas was among the most active regions. Our pre-occupation as Khomas athletics leaders was to reform athletics by targeting the leadership of Athletics Namibia. Over the four years of our term, our efforts resulted in the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) twice sending their emissary, Leonard Chuene of South Africa, to quell fires. As a result of our persistence in laying bare the challenges faced by athletics, the then Minister of Sports, John Mutorwa, decided that until Athletics Namibia put his house in order, the government would offer no form of assistance to athletics. The IAAF threatened to ban Namibia from all international athletics events, included the Athletics World Champs, Summer Olympics, Commonwealth Games and All Africa games. In between, the athletics leadership of the time expelled Quinton from all athletics events. He as even forbidden from holding his development clinics and permission to bring in foreign experts was blatantly denied by the athletics authorities. Eventually, reason triumphed over adversity. Under Quinton’s fearless persistence, a national election was held and Frank Fredericks was elected to take over as Athletics Namibia’s president. Of the million and one things Quinton may have achieved, the fight for a better athletics dispensation, was his biggest achievement, and mine too. The ‘Boertjie’ takes with him to the grave an unmatched, unmistaken fighting spirit. It is a spirit he proudly carried on his sleeve, even when he was battling the cancer that eventually claimed his life. If there’s anything Namibia must inherit from this epitome of sports, it has to be his unbridled enthusiasm for excellence in Namibian sports. He has been well received by his Maker and those of his ilk who went before him. Rus sag, Boetman. ISACK HAMATA