BFA’s Ncube denies misappropriating funds
Lebogang Mosikare | Saturday January 15, 2022 06:00
Ncube was the Head of Delegation (HoD) but was robbed of the association’s bank card by a South African driver who allegedly later used the card to buy some luxuries.
Following the theft of the card, a report was made with South African Police Service and the case is currently under investigation. However, according to some of the contents of the report that was carried out following the team’s return, Lobito may have not properly accounted for some contingency funds. Asked if she had as yet retired the R45,639,56 that was used to buy match videos and the ‘unexplained’ R5,000 Mr Price voucher, Ncube denied any wrong doing. She said: “When our team goes to competitions we carry our own video analyst who takes his own footage only during our games as permitted by Cosafa. We are then afforded the full match video of our game only. This is the standard even at CAF and international competitions. In the event when you want to get footage of other games you must purchase those games.
The purpose of purchase is to insure that the analyst is afforded more than just one angle but a full game which he can breakdown and assist the technical team with.” She added: “In the case of Cosafa we had full view that we will be playing Angola in our AFCON qualifiers hence we needed all their games, the results showed after we beat Angola convincingly.” Ncube also stated that since Botswana knew that it will be playing the winner between Eswatini and Zimbabwe it was necessary to procure the videos. “We agree we are afforded videos for our games and are thankful for that but we aren’t afforded videos of other team games for free.
Please note that this was budgeted for that is why the funds were deposited to me on my travels let it not be made as if we did not budget for this.” Explaining the confusion surrounding the purchase of Botswana’s match videos despite the team having a competent video analyst to do the same job that the South African company she hired to produce the videos, Vision View, Lobito said: “We have every intention to qualify for the upcoming women’s African cup of Nations and therefore we needed to know what kind of opponents we will face since our technical team needs to know our opponents in order to plan for them.” Our technical analyst needs different angles and a whole footage to look at teams patterns, formation and give a full report; his angle alone is not sufficient.
The fact that the FA has gotten this analyst says we know the value of getting him the tools needed for him to work , Lobito added. Despite the report speaking to the contrary, Ncube also said that she had fully accounted for all the monies that the BFA entrusted to her. “I have fully accounted for the trip I was on with the national team. I returned all receipts I used and let be on record that I have never refused to report back and submit to the secretariat finance office.” Asked to explain the confusion surrounding the Mr Price voucher, Ncube said that the voucher is a product of the illegal use of the card after it was stolen.
While the report insinuates that Ncube used the contingency funds to buy junk food for the team even though Cosafa provides meals to all member associations (MAs), Ncube denied that allegation.
When contacted for comment about the issue and if he will act on the recommendations of the report’s recommendations, the president of BFA Maclean Letshwiti s referred this reporter to the association’s acting Chief Executive Officer, Tshepo Mphuthuki. Mphuthuki said he could not comment on a report he has not seen.