Swimming uproar over P130,000 legal fees
Calistus Kolantsho | Monday August 11, 2025 10:12
An affiliate sued the BSSA, Stingrays Swimming Club, which had used part of its budget for legal fees. Stingrays took BSSA to court over the refusal to issue clearance letters for the club's swimmers. “Stingrays took us to court, we defended ourselves, we won, and the club is appealing. Stingrays complained that we spent BSSA funds on legal fees,' Matthews said.
She argued that the committee should have requested permission from the members before doing that, but that is not the case.
'As a committee, when someone sues you, you should defend when you need to. It is a constitutional matter and we wanted to do what is best for the swimmers,” she said. Matthews explained that during the COVID-19 pandemic, Kubu Club was not active, and BSSA made a mistake in registering the swimmers under Stingrays. “Kubu came back to say that their swimmers were transferred without transfer letters. We admitted that we made a mistake and we returned the swimmers. So, we are still there,” she said. Matthews said the other legal battle was against the newly elected vice president, technical, Solomon Mpusetsang, who took the association to court after he was suspended. “We then looked at the issue and realised that we should not have suspended him without talking to him. The matter was settled out of court,” she said. Matthews said that as an organisation, they should do the right thing, and there is no way they can tell someone not to sue them. “I have to defend, and there is no other money that we can use but the money of the association. We do not rely on the Botswana National Sport Commission (BNSC) grant. We are profitable; we make money elsewhere. When you plan with BNSC or World Aquatics, you do not plan for court matters,” Matthews said. She added that it is difficult to avoid legal battles, but the most important thing is to instill peace within the association. Speaking to MmegiSport, Michael Ross of the University of Botswana (UB) Swimming Club said BSSA seems reckless in spending funds they have been entrusted with by its affiliates. “More especially when it comes to legal issues, they just spend anyhow. It is time affiliates take action,” Ross said.
For his part, Stingrays' vice secretary, Themba Mhotsha, said they were surprised that the association had spent P129,959. “When we examined the committee’s report, we discovered that the legal costs were incurred when the BSSA was defending legal proceedings from affiliates. To have spent that much on matters that could have been resolved within the association, since our constitution has provisions for this. This is unethical and raises eyebrows,” said Mhotsha. He argued that the money was never part of the approved 2024–2025 budget, nor was a Special General Meeting (SGM) called, as is required by the constitution to authorise the use of the funds. He accused the executive committee of misappropriation of funds without approval from the affiliates. “That is a clear abuse of office and a total disregard of the constitution. To make matters worse, the executive committee bypassed the association’s practice when it comes to outsourcing professional services, which is to provide three quotations to the affiliates for them to appoint the service provider,” he said. Mhotsha said that happened during a period when the BSSA leadership told parents that the association had no money to fund national team tours, and parents were requested to fund the tours.
“Those who abused office must be held accountable,” he argued. Despite the concerns, Matthews' committee was given a new four-year term recently. “The president's report was generally to say, here is the strategy, to state where we are now, that was the spirit of the report. It reported on all aspects of the sport. We have achieved the majority of what we wanted to achieve. Things that we did not achieve were beyond our control. We had said we wanted to qualify swimmers for the Olympics and World Championships. What we can do is to support the swimmers,” she said. Matthews said the other area they have not managed is the structure of swimming. She explained that there are no funds, and they cannot have a secretariat.
“The highlight of my previous term was securing sponsorship from Diamond Trading Company Botswana (DTCB). The sponsorship is basically for development, but we have included our top 10 swimmers in the programme. We had a league, although the closure of the UB pool affected it, and our national championships were a success. The other big achievement was the adoption of the new BSSA constitution that is World Aquatics‐approved. You have to be accountable to the members. These are public funds. I am happy that we submitted a good financial report that was adopted by the members,” she said. The new committee has Matthews as president, Thapelo Thobolo (vice president-administration), Mpusetsang (vice president-technical), Naledi Sentle (secretary-general), Onkemetse Manowe (vice secretary-general), Owen Caple (additional member), and Bokang Mokopi (additional member).