Plot to oust BFA leadership

MQONDISI DUBE
Staff Writer | Friday July 30, 2010 00:00

 

Reflective of simmering factional wars in the Botswana Football Association (BFA), some disgruntled individuals are planning to oust the National Executive Committee (NEC) during tomorrow's general assembly. A document, entitled 'Need for change at the BFA NEC', has been circulated to regions, calling for a change in the leadership during the assembly. The concerned members argue that the current leadership has failed football.

'We intercepted a letter that calls for a change in the leadership. It does not say how this will be achieved.Apparently a group of individuals has been talking to the regions asking them to pass a vote of no confidence in the BFA leadership,' BFA president, David Fani, told Mmegi Sport last night. He fingered certain individuals, among them, former Gaborone United (GU) chairman, Horatio 'Chippa' Mahloane, as one of the people behind the planned 'coup'.

'I know he is with some people who lost elections and some whose candidature at the assembly is in question,' Fani said.

'It (plot) should not make people panic. We will deal with the situation since we have been forewarned,' he added. Fani was expected to issue a media statement, assuring delegates that the situation is under control. He was quick to call for calm ahead of what is now expected to be an explosive assembly at Boipuso Hall.

Mahloane confirmed that he was part of a group of concerned individuals who want to see change in the way football is run. 'Yes I am part of it. We are looking at the failures in football. The game has stalled in the last two years. We need to correct the mistake we made two years ago (of voting the current leadership),' he explained. He said the group is working with delegates who will attend tomorrow's meeting with a view to change the BFA leadership.

Internecine wars for control of the soccer body have been blamed on factional divisions, with one group sympathetic to Fani while the other is loyal to former president, Dikgang Phillip Makgalemele.

Fani lost the 2004 elections to Makgalemele only to recapture the position in 2008. The fierce wars saw BFA vice president, Segolame Ramotlhwa, a Makgalemele ally, resign his post citing a breakdown in relations with the current officials.

But Ramotlhwa has since made an about turn and is contesting the vice president's position tomorrow although his candidature has been questioned. There are suggestions that he belongs to the group that wants to oust the current executive.