Finger pointing as women's football goes for re-run
Kabelo Boranabi | Friday August 3, 2018 12:42
The initial election was held on May 29, 2018, but after a significant time non-affiliates were allowed to vote, the Botswana Football Association (BFA) nullified the vote. Incumbent Itsholeng Disang’s team had won all the seats with Disang retained as chairperson.
According to a source, Disang is accused of trying to get voters on her side, hence the decision to allow clubs that had not paid affiliation fees to vote.
“She was the chairperson at the time, she was aware of the teams that did not affiliate but she still allowed them to vote.
She, together with her committee, should have controlled the situation, but because they wanted the numbers, they allowed the non-affiliated teams to cast their votes,” the source said.
Another insider said prior to the May election teams from the Kweneng, Gaborone and Kgalagadi regions had paid the affiliation while the other regions forfeited.
But Disang batted away the accusations, arguing the BFA executive committee was responsible for electing an independent electoral board that handles the election process. She, instead, shifted the blame to the regional leadership.
“We get the list of the teams that have affiliated from the regions. There is noway I would have allowed non-affiliates to vote because during the election process my committee was dissolved, so we did not have the powers to say anything about the elections,” she said. Disang added that the electoral board on the day was made up of the BFA administrative staff.
BFA public relations officer, Tumo Mpatane said they have put extra measures in place to avoid fracas. “We have liaised with regions (leadership) in terms of what is needed for the teams to partake in the assembly.
They will double-check the names of the teams who have paid the affiliation fees; we expect the final list to be confirmed tomorrow (Friday),” Mpatane said.
“The regions unfortunately overlooked some important aspects and that caused a bit of inconsistency as some regions brought names of affiliated teams only. This is the reason, in the spirit of fairness, the NEC recalled the women’s football assembly,” he said.
Disang will once again face Tapaphiwa Marumo in the battle for the chairperson’s post. In the May election, Disang won by 77 votes to 37. Meanwhile, the weekend’s assembly has disrupted the Female Zebras’ preparations for the COSAFA Women’s Challenge.
The team was scheduled to report for camp on Saturday but will now assemble a week later on August 11 to start the preparations for the tournament to be held in South Africa from August 26.
The team’s head coach, Gaolethoo Nkutlwisang has called 35 players for the two-week camp, which will be trimmed down to 20 just before the tournament kicks off.