CAF approves Letshwiti's candidacy
Mqondisi Dube | Friday January 15, 2021 15:17
CAF recently announced names of the 13 candidates to contest for the eight executive committee positions up for grabs. One of the eight seats is reserved for a female representative.
Candidates submitted their names before the November 12, 2020 deadline and CAF has now cleared the 13 candidates after an eligibility check. Other three candidates, Mamadou Antonio Souaré (Guinea), Seidou Mbombo Njoya (Cameroon) and Arthur De Almeida E. Silva from Angola will however, undergo further examination before their candidacy could be approved.
If they are approved, it will take the number of contestants to 16. Southern Africa has two slots in the executive committee and Letshwiti will face candidates from Angola, Mozambique, Seychelles and Madagascar.
The continental body will have a new president after the March 12 elections after Ahmad Ahmad was slapped with a five-year suspension by FIFA in December.
The CAF governance committee, which vets candidates, approved the candidature of 55-year-old Senegalese lawyer, Augustin Emmanuel Senghor and 69 year-old financial executive, Jacques Bernard Daniel Anouma from Ivory Coast. The committee recommended that businessmen Ahmed Yahya from Mauritania and South Africa’s Patrice Motsepe should undergo further eligibility checks. “Their candidatures were deemed admissible. However, the committee considered that further checks are necessary before a final decision.
To this end, a hearing of these candidates will be organized in Cairo on 28 January 2021,” the governance committee said in a statement. The hearing for the three executive member candidates is also scheduled for January 28. The Botswana Football Association (BFA) has already thrown its weight behind Motsepe, and now faces an anxious wait to see if their preferred man is cleared to contest.
Full list of approved candidates
President
- Jacques Bernard Daniel Anouma (Côte d’ivoire)
- Augustin Emmanuel Senghor (Senegal)
Executive committee
Wadie Jary (Tunisia), Mustapha Ishola Raji (Liberia), Djibrilla Hima Hamidou (Niger), Edwin Simeon- Okraku (Ghana), Adoum Djibrine (Chad), Suleiman Waberi (Djibouti), Isayas Jira (Ethiopia), Feizal Ismael Sidat (Mozambique), Elvis Raja Chetty (Seychelles), Maclean Cortez Letshwiti (Botswana), Kanizat Ibrahim (Comoros), Patricia Rajeriarison (Madagascar), Lawson Hogban-Latré-Kayti Edzona (Togo)