BAA brace for stormy meeting

THATO KALA
Correspondent | Friday May 20, 2011 00:00

 

The club has put its complaint in writing and expects the matter to be tackled at the BAA special general meeting next weekend. The BAA constitution says clubs should endorse their delegates prior to the election, which New Vision say it never did.

Club chairman, Mogomotsi Gaosigo said they had formalised their complaint and expect the issue to be thrashed out at the meeting.  'We noticed that someone voted on our behalf but we never endorsed him to represent us.

We only had one representative so we are not sure where the other person came from,' he said. A special BAA meeting has been pencilled for May 29 and several thorny issues are expected to be discussed. BAA spokesperson, Glody Dube, said the gathering will address issues surrounding the February elections. 'We'll have a special meeting on May 29 mainly to deal with election issues. Some people feel that the elections were not free and fair; they believe there was a lot of cheating so this meeting is scheduled to address such issues,' he said.

It is said BAA contravened the constitution when they created an appeals committee after receiving New Vision's complaint. Lesedinyana Lekgowa and Robert Chideka were part of a three-member appeals committee that was picked by the association. Constitutionally, it is the prerogative of the clubs to appoint an appeals committee should any need arise.

'The president (Moses Bantsi) called us and told us that an appeals committee had been appointed (after New Vision's complaints). I asked who had picked the people and on what basis they had been appointed. He then apologised for overlooking us and said if I had a name, I was free to bring it forward,' Dube said.

However, Dube feels that there was no need to create an appeals committee. He believes the ideal thing to do is to revisit the association's statutes and correct them where there are mistakes. Bantsi fumed when contacted for comment: 'We have just hosted a successful championship (Africa Junior Athletics Championships) and all you can think of are negative things. You journalists need to be re-trained,' said a fuming Bantsi.