Bickering has resurfaced at the Botswana Football League (BFL) just weeks after warring parties appeared to smoke the peace pipe. Reports have emerged that BFL chairperson, Nicholas Zakhem has 'fired' chief executive officer, Senzo Mbatha, while operations manager, Patrice Motsepe was forced out.
But Zakhem denied the allegations and said Mbatha's contract expired last week, while Motsepe left on his own volition. Some disgruntled BFL shareholders convened a meeting yesterday at Lekidi Centre, chaired by BFA president, Maclean Letshwiti. At some point, Zakhem reportedly stormed out of the meeting, but had to be called back into the meeting, as discussions got heated. BFL members wanted to co-opt some club officials into the board but sources said Zakhem wanted to vet the names. "We have resolved to approach the Botswana National Sports Commission (BNSC) for immediate intervention. The situation is untenable. Zakhem pushed out Motsepe and has ordered Senzo to leave," the source who attended the meeting said. Media reports were that Mbatha's contract had been renewed by five months early this month. "With Patrick (Motsepe) issue, he was told not to fixture GU and TAFIC at the Francistown Stadium which is deemed to be in a bad state, but he went ahead, arguing other teams have played there before. This irked Zakhem," the source said.
Responding to the issues, Zakhem said Mbatha's contract had expired. "He is handing over tomorrow. We should look at the budget. It was an economic decision. Again, he had a restricted work permit," Zakhem said. He said at the moment there is no CEO at the BFL and he was not in charge. "I am there to run with the CEO or acting CEO, but not there on an everyday basis, I have other things to do," he added. "Regarding, co-opting, I told them we need to follow the constitution. We never discussed names. We want to follow the constitution and not fall into the previous trap," he said. Zakhem refuted claims that he was 'all-too-powerful' even overshadowing the BFA president. "Do I have the power? Who gave me the power? It's the High Court and the constitution, its not the BFA president. The problem is campaigning for (BFA) elections," Zakhem said.
He denied reports Motsepe was pushed out of office after he fixtured Gaborone United and TAFIC at the 'condemned' Francistown Council Stadium. GU went on to lose the game 2-1. "Before the game started there was a complaint that the ground is unplayable. I engaged Patrick to that effect. I was oversees. Why was the pitch certified ok for playing? I even asked why was VTM and TAFIC fixtured there. So its not about GU only. I asked Senzo and he said there was a report (passing the ground playable) but that was not produced," Zakhem said. "If he did wrong, Patrick was supposed to admit he was wrong. Everyone has been saying how bad the pitch is. I never fired him, I never wrote him a letter. Let's stop this politics, we can't play there if we are serious and we have sponsorship like the FNB and Btv one." Zakhem said he is under attack from certain forces within football. "I am under attack and it's continuing. It's an unlawful attack. I am very firm and I am for football. Football politics is so dirty," he said.
