SVM Policy Nearly Derails AGM
Monday, May 31, 2021

The new SVM committee was ushered in on Saturday PIC: PHATSIMO KAPENG
It led to the vetting out of some of the candidates such as Curdley Mukwati who was nominated for the position of secretary general and Zachariah Seabo for public relations position. The two were vetted out, because they did not meet some of the requirements.
The new SVM vice chairperson, Tapson Patane, told Sport Monitor that they went through the same situation in the past. “The policy offers two routes for the election process and the first one is through nomination forms. The forms should be accompanied by a profile and a consent letter. So in this case, the nominated candidates did not submit their profiles and consent letters, which is the reason why they were vetted out. Again if they were to request the forms, the process was going to be overtaken by the time frame of 21 days of submission prior to elections,” he said. Patane explained that after discarding all nominees, which were not complete, then the policy was left with one route being to allow floor nominations. Patane said the vetted candidates could be allowed to contest for positions in the next elections if they are interested.
While every citizen, including the Head of State, has the right to voice opinions, the tone and context of the President’s comments were regrettably dismissive and risk chilling free expression in our country. The remarks are not isolated. They form part of a disturbing pattern of public attacks on independent institutions pillars essential to the healthy functioning of our democracy. The Judiciary, the Legislature, and now the media have all...