AFCON bid probe hits cold trail
Mqondisi Dube | Monday September 1, 2025 06:00
In February, Parliament approved a motion brought to the House by Member of Parliament for Molepolole North, Arafat Khan, to audit the AFCON process after Botswana spent P65 million on the botched bid. The costs were largely driven up by a bid book that cost P61 million. But since the motion was passed, publicly, there has been little headway in the investigation, which has caused frustration among those who were involved in the process. Key personnel in the bid process this week told MmegiSport that, six months later, they have not heard from the investigators. Ruben Reddy of Ruben Reddy Architects, the company that produced the bid book, said there has been no contact over the probe. 'No, there has not been (any contact,' Reddy said on Thursday. Ashford Mamelodi, who chaired the bid committee, was more blunt as he expressed his disappointment over the delayed investigation. 'I am disappointed that the planned Parliamentary probe seems to be taking forever. Serious allegations were made and must be conclusively investigated,' he said. 'The AFCON 2027 Bid Committee that I chaired stands ready to assist Parliament to the best of our ability should this assistance be sought,' Mamelodi added.
The then-Youth, Gender, Sport and Culture minister, Tumiso Rakgare, said he wrote to the Speaker of Parliament, Dithapelo Keorapetse, in March regarding the probe, but despite promises that there would be further communication, nothing has been forthcoming. 'He had promised that once they set up the committee, they would get in touch. Since then (March), they have not reverted,' Rakgare said. 'If you believe someone is corrupt and you want to investigate and possibly prosecute, you must demonstrate some level of agility,' the former minister added. Rakgare said he was ridiculed in Parliament during the debate of the motion to investigate the bid process, and so it would only be logical to set up the committee to allow them to respond. 'If you were listening to Parliament, these guys ridiculed me, embarrassed me, and portrayed me as a criminal. I have never stolen anything from anyone. I want these guys to set up this committee. My expectation is that by now they would have set up the committee. It's clear that they were misinformed and clueless. There were some serious distortions,' Rakgare said.
'I wanted us to bid for AFCON to create employment. I wanted it for Batswana, for better infrastructure,' he said. Khan, who introduced the motion in Parliament, referred questions on the National Assembly's probe to Keorapetse, who had not responded to MmegiSport's enquiry on the status of the investigation. Botswana lost in its effort to host the 2027 AFCON finals, which CAF awarded to Tanzania, Kenya, and Uganda.