In his book, Mamelodi, commonly referred to as Dumba, regals his stories about the happenings within and without the football corridors of power in Botswana from the late 1980s to the time when he was appointed to FIFA as one of the 12 FIFA Goal Development Officers for the region. He was the acting Secretary-General of the Botswana Football Association (BFA) in 1989, then full-time Secretary-General from 1991-2000. Mamelodi has been enjoying an enviable marriage life since 1990 to date. He and his beautiful wife, Koketso Prudence Mauco, tied the knot in a little village called Dinatshana in the Barolong Farms on August 18, 1990. The marriage was celebrated at the St Theresa’s Roman Catholic Church in Lobatse. The place where the marriage was celebrated is special to me. I was born and bred in Lobatse. My father was a Catechist in the Roman Catholic Church, and thus, we lived at St Theresa’s Catholic Mission, where St Theresa’s Primary School and the church are situated.
The church is basically the same premises, and the church building was just a stone's throw away from the house we used to live in. Mamelodi’s wedding mass was presided over by the Right Reverend Bishop Boniface Tshosa Setlalekgosi (MHSRIP) which, on its own, was a privilege for him and his wife. His Excellency the Bishop had to travel about 70km from Gaborone to the small town of Lobatse, and so the couple was honoured to have the leader of the church in Botswana preside. At the time, I must have been doing one of three things: either attending studies at the nearby Ipelegeng Community Junior Secondary School where I was a student, visiting my grandparents with my siblings at the Sakutswane Lands a few kilometres southwest of Otse village, or serving in the same holy mass as an altar boy. I just can’t remember. It is decades ago, and I served as an altar boy in many weddings during that period, so it is impossible for me to remember. What is clear is that there is a good probability that I attended his wedding as an altar boy. In his book, Mamelodi tells us how it all started. It was difficult and treacherous. He embarked on a worthy mission to bring organised football to the people of Botswana, particularly in far-flung places. “I often recall my first adventure to prepare for organised football. I was travelling with the late Peter Nthite by road from Francistown to Tsabong. The road to Tsabong was treacherous, one gigantic pothole, pregnant with a million other potholes, made the five-hour trip feel like one of those massage chairs in airport lounges, except more violent. Little wonder that, on our first trip, my Nissan Sedan suffered two punctures. One also had to be diligent to avoid herds of cows and antelope which would wander across the road without care,” he writes.
He states that after spending a few days at his destination, he and Nthite would feel they had fulfilled their objective of introducing organised football to Kgalagadi South and North. They had created a solid foundation on which football in the area could grow. The other areas that they visited that he makes mention of having visited with the same noble purpose are the Maun and the Chobe regions. Having duly organised the remote areas which had now started to play formal football in their respective regions, he and others could now focus on sourcing good footballers from those teams to draft into the national team. He then embarked on a long and arduous road of transforming Botswana from Independence Day friendlies to a nation that could compete continentally. That was “never going to be a caterpillar-to-butterfly moment”, he posits. Mamelodi dedicates a whole chapter to his beloved and revered Ben Koufie, a reputable football expert who had recognition at both CAF and FIFA. Koufie was recruited from what Mamelodi describes as our “much-maligned labour”, in Zimbabwe, and was given the newly-created post of BFA Technical Director. The Ghanaian rapidly created a Three-Year Development Plan, insisting that Botswana be entered into international competitions.
According to Mamelodi, Koufie’s arrival was met with much scepticism. “This book does not explore social constructs in Botswana, but it is safe to assume we, as a nation, can rightly or wrongly be perceived as xenophobic,” he bemoans. “The simple fact is that Ben was employed based on his previous experience, achievements, and qualifications,” he contends. "At the time he was the right man for the job and his credentials were unmatched in Botswana,” he continues. Upon Koufie’s arrival, the BFA National Executive Committee (NEC) resolved that the BFA would participate in all competitions for which the association was eligible, and further, that it would do away with international friendlies to celebrate Independence Day. Koufie stayed in Botswana for nine years and, during that period, he was subjected to abuse as the Zebras lived up to the name 'The Whipping Boys of Africa'. Koufie and Mamelodi became very close. By the time he left in 2000, they had become like family. When Koufie left Botswana, according to Mamelodi, the general attitude towards him had changed. “There was more appreciation for football development. Our Botswana National Sport Council (BNSC) assisted us with refunding our expenses from the Development Plan, and a few other sponsors were also coming on board. I was delighted with this change of attitude. Long after we had left, Botswana qualified for AFCON in 2012 and many knew Ben had played a significant role in this achievement,” he posits. Mamelodi served as BFA CEO under two presidents, namely, Ismael Bhamjee and Olebile Gaborone. The late Bhamjee was a businessman, and a former FIFA-listed referee, and served concurrently on the Executive Committee of CAF and FIFA. Gaborone was president of the Interim Executive Committee of the BFA and CEO of the Botswana Telecommunications Corporation. Mamelodi had “abundant respect and admiration for him (Gaborone), perhaps because he was the humanisation of an oxymoron.
He was simultaneously challenging and compassionate, frank and blunt, and the sharpest knife in the drawer; he was highly calculated but not averse to risk with a potentially large payoff. He was known in some quarters as ‘Mr Fix it’”. Bhamjee, he states, “was more available and performed admirably. He had a great sense of humour and was a very likeable and approachable gentleman." In his book, Mamelodi tells us about instances of media face-off that he experienced. He seemed to have had a “purely adversarial” relationship with some people in the media. He complains that he was “always the lion that had indulged its insatiable hunger by feasting on an unsuspecting spectator." "They shouted about my perceived maladministration from the rooftops of their respective media house – none more vociferously than the infamous Bra Tinto." “He, however, was not the only one. My relationship with the media in Botswana during my decade-long stay at the House of Football deserves mention. It is a relationship from which I ironically profited,” he confesses. He confirms that he benefited from some of the criticism levelled both at the BFA and himself personally, taking them as an opportunity to correct any shortcomings. He had to develop a thick skin though.
This is the first of a two-part book review. The rest of the review will run in our next edition, Friday, 28 March, 2025.
*Rantao is, among others, the first Motswana to be appointed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), former chairperson COSAFA Statutes Committee, former chief arbitrator, BFA, former chief prosecutor, BFA.
