Vikings Softball Club has been slapped with a two-year suspension from all Botswana Softball Association (BSA) activities.
The club was suspended by the BSA executive committee after it was found guilty of taking the association to court and failing to follow procedure.
“Following the BSA NEC sitting on the 27th November 2019, the NEC has decided to suspend Vikings Softball Club from BSA effective 27th November 2019. The suspension shall be for a period of two years in accordance to article 4 (d) of the BSA constitution.
“Any member of the association, who takes the association to court or fails to follow the procedures that have been laid down in this constitution for dispute resolution, shall be suspended from the association for two years, from participating in all activities of the association” read article 4 (d) of the BSA constitution.
Vikings dragged the BSA before the courts after the club was denied registration for the annual Phikwe Extravaganza tournament. The competition is played during the President holidays in July.
The club is however tightlipped over its suspension, with Vikings chairperson Eng Mpotokwane referring all questions on the matter to their legal representative Yul Moncho.
“The committee has not met because we were only given the letter of suspension yesterday” explained the Mpotokwane. She said the issue is dealt by their lawyer.
Attempts to reach Moncho for a comment however hit a snag as the lawyer had not responded to calls by the time of going to press.
The BSA president, Thabo Thamane, explained that Vikings violated the BSA constitution. “They went to court and they lost with costs. We have been vindicated by the courts of law that the decision we took was right.”
Thamane explained that Vikings failed to meet the deadline of 10:00hrs that was set for registration for Phikwe extravaganza. And they were barred from taking part in the 2019 edition. The team resorted of taking the BSA to court.
“They came after 1000hrs on the set date and they don’t deny it. They took BSA to court and they lost the matter,” he explained.
Thamane denied the allegations that Vikings issue has led to the BSA failure to stage the BOFINET league. “It was just a coincidence BSA was dealing with lot of things that are administrative before they could start the league” he explained the delay.
Vikings was given lieu way to appeal to the Botswana National Sport Commission Appeals Board if the still feel hard done by the BSA NEC.
meanwhile the association plans to reduce the teams in the league to foster efficiency and competition. There are about 26 and 24 men and women team respectively in the league and there is no efficiency in running such huge league.
“There should be competition in the league and the teams must be small in number so that there can be better prize money. If they are many the prize money will be little compared to when they are few.
Thamane explained that they could not stage the league in 2019 because there were many pending issues that they were addressing to improve on governance and the way the clubs have been doing things.
“There were issues of compliance both with the BSA constitution and the registrar of societies that we had to deal with before the league could start” he said.
The issues of compliance borders on governance and for the BSA to be seen to be progressive we have to improve on the way we have been doing things.
“The clubs had to satisfy and meet the requirements of constitution and that of registrar of societies so that when we approach sponsors people should see us as well run code that sponsors will have trust on us. When BNSC audit us they should not see any fault on the way we do things and we should be able to account from money we got from sponsors as well as government grant” explained Thamane.
The BSA leadership has taken a decision to help the clubs to fully comply with the registrar of societies and do annual returns on yearly basis as required by law.
“We could not start the league because we are cleaning up and want to do things procedurally. The BSA is going to help the teams to adopt a culture of good governance” explained Thamane. The league is expected to start in January 2020.
