Mmolawa, Butler tiff reaches CAF
Kabelo Boranabi | Saturday September 9, 2023 06:00
Mmolawa, who had been with the club since 2021 but left due to personal reasons last month, submitted a complaint letter to CAF on September 4, seeking independent intervention.
In his complaint, Mmolawa alleges racial discrimination during his tenure with Gaborone United under Butler's leadership. “The complaint is on racial discrimination meted against my persona by Mr Butler on the course of work for Gaborone United under football matters.
My reasons for the direct escalation of the matter to CAF is to avoid conflict of interest that might arise if the matter is dealt with, locally,” Mmolawa said in the letter. Speaking to Mmegi Sport this week, Mmolawa recounted an incident during a trip home from a CAF Confederations Cup assignment in Madagascar, which led to his decision to leave the club.
Upon arrival in Gaborone, Mmolawa was deployed to the women's team but he opted to leave the club instead. Mmolawa said he has never enjoyed a good relationship with the Englishman and it reached its peak during the recent trip from Madagascar.
"He accused me of drinking with the players and all sorts. I believe he never liked me and he wanted me out since he arrived. So on a plane from Madagascar, I was having a bottle of wine then Butler came over and accused me of being unprofessional by drinking in front of the players. He went on to say black people are lazy and only think of alcohol," Mmolawa explained. Sources have indicated that other non-playing staff of GU were also consuming alcoholic beverages during the trip.
According to an eyewitness on the plane, Butler reprimanded Mmolawa for his behaviour, which resulted in a heated argument. “How can someone lie and make up a story because he was demoted from the team? This is due to his own indiscretion and outlandish behaviour on a plane when you are representing your club and country. Butler ordered him to stop drinking and he was pissed and loud on the plane, and being a nuisance to other passengers and flight crew,” a source who was on the plane said.
GU's marketing and communications officer, Herbert Letsebe, expressed the club's strong stance against racism but stated that the club had not received any prior reports of racism within its ranks. “GU has zero tolerance to racism of any sort; our director hates racism and does not tolerate racism at all cost. We, as a club, do not have tolerance for racism and we can never tolerate such bad behaviour. But nobody has ever reported the racism issue at the club. We have never had any incident of racism in the club.
So, I believe the person suitable to answer those is Owe. Therefore, there is not much we can say. We have never encountered an issue of racism in the club,” Letsebe said. In addition to the complaint with CAF, Mmolawa has also requested that the Immigration Office revoke Butler's working permit in light of the allegations. Butler holds temporary work and residential permits, and Mmolawa contends that the racial allegations cast doubt on Butler's suitability for these permits.