BFA HR manager quits due to �personal reasons�

Mqondisi Dube | Friday March 24, 2017 15:16

There were reports Winston was hounded out after claims she had leaked the Botswana Premier League (BPL) forensic audit to the media and was seen as sympathetic to suspended BPL chief executive officer, Bennett Mamelodi.

However BFA chief executive officer, Ookeditse Malesu dismissed the reports and said Winston had decided to call it a day due to personal matters.

Malesu said Winston, who is leaving at the end of the month, was not pushed out. “She has other personal commitments. If we need any assistance from her she will be available,” Malesu said.

Winston told Mmegi Sport that she leaves BFA a satisfied person who now knows the value of football to many.

“My resignation is purely for personal reasons. It has been a difficult decision to make which I have been wavering on since September last year because on the one hand, I have pressing family commitments that I can’t delegate or wish away, and on the other hand, I have my professional obligations to BFA,” she said.

Despite the BFA being known as a political environment, Winston, instead described it as a “great place to work” in. She however said budgetary constraints were her biggest challenge.

“… because without the necessary funding, certain key HR projects had to be deferred. As you know staff satisfaction and motivation is underpinned by remuneration, role clarity, prospects of development and growth, as well as the quality of the physical working environment.

These are areas that I particularly wanted to see staff benefit, but unfortunately the budget was not elastic and as I said, HR would often yield to core business.” Winston said during her time at BFA she managed to establish a Staff Welfare Committee, which is a platform where employees advance their interests “collectively and constructively”.

However she had cautionary advise for her successor. “I think a challenge that my successor will find though is the level of understanding in the environment of the role and function of HR.

I think when that is improved even more, it will become that much easier to command resources and deliver the HR mandate in the BFA environment,” she said.