Botswana Referees Commission has moved to suspend Dintwa Machine Dintwa who is a centre referee and Moemedi Monakwane who is an assistant referee over unprofessional conduct. Dintwa was suspended for gross unprofessional conduct after posting referees fixtures on his Facebook status account. A source close to the matter said “Every Thursday referees are given fixtures and the expectation is that teams should not know who will be their officials. The publicity stunt was against the norms and practices that govern the match officials.”
Match officials fixtures are not supposed to be publicised to avoid match fixing scenarios. “What the man did was wrong because it can put officials under pressure and some teams might visit them in an effort to bribe them to favour their team on match day,” the source explained. FIFA is against match fixing and it shouldn’t be seen as if Botswana officials encourage it. He further explained that it also puts referees in danger if one team that he/she is expected to officiate in their match don’t like him. They can beat or assault him to force the commission to replace him/her so that a new referee can officiate in the match,” the source said.
For, Monakwane, he is suspended for failing to assist the centre referee in a match between Mochudi Centre Chiefs and Extension Gunners. On the fateful match, the referee allowed play to continue despite the Chiefs goal keeper, Siamisang Kgosipula being injured. Gunners seized the opportunity and scored a goal to make it 2 – 1. The injured Kgosipula only caught the attention of the referee after the Gunners goal. He was then rushed to the hospital by medical rescue team because he was heavily injured. “Monakwane was supposed to have raised his flag to notify the referee of the incident so that play can be stopped and the goal keeper be assisted accordingly,” the source said.
Contacted for comment, BFA spokesperson Tumo Mpatane, refused to comment and repeated what he said two weeks ago after the suspension of Kutlwano Leso. “We do not discuss referees on a public platform, there is a code of conduct that the referees’ committee follows when dealing with referees’ discipline. I do not recall at any given time having discussed this on a public platform or media,” said Mpatane. He said it will be unethical of him to make any pronouncement on referees’ issues.
