Gunners call crisis meeting
Boitumelo Khutsafalo | Friday April 26, 2019 12:14
The Peleng giants have been rocked by boardroom squabbles, which resulted in the suspension of some executive committee members.
Club spokesperson, Willough Kemoen yesterday said they acknowledge their supporters’ concerns over the recent crisis hence they decided to call everyone under one roof to try and address their issues. “We are yet to secure a venue, but the meeting will take place in Lobatse. At this meeting we are going to address all the urgent matters that need attention,” he said.
“That is the reason why we have called up everyone associated with Gunners to come and have their input. The intention is to come out of that meeting with resolutions that will take this club forward,” he said. The problems kicked off with the resignation of the then vice chairperson, Tapela Boti before the club sank deeper into crisis when the board of directors suspended chairperson, Tariq Babitseng on allegations of misappropriation of funds.
The board indicated that the chairperson had failed to account for the P30, 000 acquired as an advance from the Botswana Premier League (BPL). However, the board has since backtracked on its initial position saying there had been some misunderstanding with regard to their earlier decision.
The board immediately reinstated Babitseng. There have been reports that the board was divided on the decisions taken regarding Babitseng.
In the initial statement, the board had stated that they would involve both the Police and the Directorate of Corruption and Economic Crime (DCEC) to help investigate the matter. However, Kemoen has since revealed that the move has been halted as the club seeks to solve the matter internally.
“No investigations are going to take place. We are going to deal with all these issues internally,” he said. “In this special general meeting we are going to discuss everything that deals with the current team status; financials, leadership crisis as well as the team’s performance.”
While the issues engulfing Gunners seem too heavy for the popular giants, Kemoen is optimistic that they will come out of the May 11 meeting with positive results.
However, the current problems, which include the resignation of committee members and players boycotting training sessions relating to unpaid salaries, are synonymous with Gunners.
Season in and season out, Mapantsula find themselves having to deal with off the field issues, which eventually catch up with their performance on the field.
Under the past committee, which was led by the late chairperson, Phenyo Gothaang, several committee members resigned before their term elapsed with reports that there were misunderstandings at management level. Amongst those who resigned before is former president, Alex Masie, who left the club again last week.