BOTESSA leadership disputes overstay claim
Calistus Kolantsho | Saturday April 2, 2022 08:50
According to information reaching Mmegi Sport, the committee is using the merger with the Botswana Brigades Sport Association (BOBSA) to extend its stay. A source has revealed that the committee intends to stay in office until November after the merger has been completed.
“They want to stay in office until the end of the year. The members have advised the leadership to set up an interim committee that would focus on the merger. Then the committee can focus on setting a date for elections,” a source said.
BOTESSA president, Keorapetse Setlhare disputed that his committee has not overstayed in office as the general membership had extended its mandate until the end of March.
“The affiliates have decided during a general assembly that we must finalise the merger. The process was delayed by the constitutional review. The task force that was given the responsibility of reviewing the constitution took longer than expected. They only submitted the document to us last week and it has been submitted to the Registrar of Societies,” he said.
The task force was expected to send the document to the members after incorporating the proposed amendments by February, three days after the BOTESSA extra-ordinary meeting. The members were given 14 days to read and check if their suggestions had been included as agreed. The task force was appointed in June last year and the two associations signed the merger agreement in September. Setlhare explained merger could not take place before the constitution was completed.
“I suspected that someone in the task force had delay tactics to make me look like a failure. Yes, I am aware that some people are suggesting an interim committee and that is something that could be looked into,” he said.
Setlhare explained that he has been through other constitution reviews before but has never seen the process take this long.
“Our affiliates are aware of where the delay emanates from,” he added.
When asked if the constitution could have played a part in delaying BOTESSA elections, the task force chairperson, Herbert Letsebe refuted the claim.
“We were not advised to complete the project quickly. We took into consideration that the merger is ongoing. For the merger to progress, the constitution has to be ready. The two associations cannot progress with the merger without the constitution,” he said.
Letsebe said they did not want to rush anything but to produce a quality document that is going to govern the new association. Letsebe said an interim committee could also have been appointed to complete the merger.
“Being in the BOTESSA committee does not mean you are better than other people. It is voluntary. If an interim committee was to be voted, we could have gotten people who volunteered,” he said.
Letsebe said when the term for the current committee expired, the leadership could have requested members to elect an interim committee but if the same committee is given an extension, it is still not a problem.
Meanwhile, Letsebe explained that they had a target to have completed the project but it was just an estimate looking at the challenges they had. “Two groups were coming from different associations, BOTESSA and BOBSA. As BOTESSA, we had our meetings in different areas such as Gaborone, Francistown and Mahalapye,” he said.
Letsebe said that came with challenges where in some instances BOBSA representatives were not released to attend meetings. He said they had also underestimated the amount of work they were to do.
“We thought it was an easy thing that we could rush through. When we started we realised that the target we had set was not feasible. When we reached the deadline, we had done a lot of work and asked for an extension to do the final wrap up,” he said.
Letsebe said they presented the document to committees of both BOTESSA and BOBSA. The members were then also given a chance to appreciate the constitution review and suggestions that were made were incorporated into the document.