Wednesday, February 12, 2025

BFA attempts to assemble for the third time

Botswana Football Association (BFA) is working on the modalities to host its elective General Assembly.

No date has been set yet for the assembly which is seemingly going to be one of the most explosive in recent memory.

Hosting of the assembly was deferred as it would have required a violation of COVID-19 health regulations.

Under the regulations, a gathering of more than 50 people for a meeting is not allowed, nor is it allowed for people to cross COVID zones to attend meetings.

Close to ninety (90) delegates are expected to attend the elective assembly. These include the association’s 60 voting delegates, the BFA National Executive Committee (NEC), the electoral committee and observers.

The assembly was initially billed for 8th August and was later dated to the 22nd of August in Francistown. 

When the assembly was postponed for the first time it was due to the vetting process which took a long time than anticipated by the elections committee. 

The process was marred by controversy which was sparked by the vetting out of BFA presidential hopefuls Tebogo Sebego and Ookeditse Malesu.

Sebego and Malesu would later be reinstated back in the race after successfully challenging the elections committee’s decision at the upper dispute resolution committee. 

There is already a mounting pressure for the assembly to be done with and the BFA Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Mfolo Mfolo is adamant that ‘the date of the meeting is will be staged soonest.’ 

“We are working on balancing the BFA constitutional obligations with the COVID19 health protocol requirements,” he said.

Mfolo explained that “we are working on modalities on how best we can host the assembly against the government health protocols. We have to strike a balance and host the assembly because we have to satisfy the BFA constitution requirements.” 

It is mandatory for the BFA to stage elective assembly every four years. BFA National Executive Committee is over four years in office and is due for fresh mandate to be given to aspiring individuals. 

Maclean Letshwiti, the incumbent leader is seeking second term in office while his predecessor, Tebogo Sebego and former BFA CEO Ookeditse Malesu are aiming to topple him.

Asked when will the assembly be staged, he said: “Next week. We will inform all stakeholders on the date of the assembly and how we are going to go about it.” 

Meanwhile, the BFA CEO has denied that the assembly has been rescheduled to the 5th of next month (September).

According to sources, the association will host the assembly on the said day through the use of video conferencing.

The source alluded that the plan is that those in south of Dibete converge in Gaborone while those in northern Botswana will go to Francistown where they will receive live feed of the assembly.

Asked to confirm, Mfolo stuck to his guns that there was no truth in the allegations as the association was “yet to decide the date and the modalities.” 

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