Monday, December 11, 2023

State of anarchy to take centre stage at Chiefs AGM

Mochudi Centre Chiefs unsavory state of affairs will take centre stage when the society goes for its elective Annual General Meeting (AGM) this coming weekend. The AGM is scheduled for Molefhi Senior Secondary School this coming Saturday.

Following a highly publicized battle for  control of Centre Chiefs, the team hopes by the time the meeting is finished ghastly ghosts of its internal wars would have been laid to rest. 

Currently, Centre Chiefs is torn between two opposing axis of power, both of whom are claiming to be the legitimate office bearers of the club. 

On the one side is the Mochudi Centre Chiefs Trust, which is currently in control and is recognized as the team’s recognized Executive Committee, while on the other side is the Ramocha – Tsieng axis, acting as the ‘Mochudi Centre Chiefs society’ executive committee. The two factions have had running clashes, with the most recent one happening just about a month ago.

In a recent fiasco that put the team’s internal wars on the spotlight, ‘society’ interim chairman, Tsieng authored a letter of demand to Botswana Football Association (BFA) requesting the country’s football governing body to deposit the league and mascom Top 8 prize monies into the society account. 

The letter was met with scorn from the Tsheko led ‘Mochudi Centre Chiefs Trust’ committee, who described the Tsieng led faction as ‘desperate individuals who have gone all the way to disrupt the activities of the football club for their own singular interests.’

With resolution to the impasse between the two warring factions now seemingly out of sight and the Registrar of Societies’ recommendations for arbitration not achievable, it will now be up to the team’s membership to resolve the internal wars. 

Speaking in an interview, Chiefs’ Public Relations Officer (PRO), Clifford Mogomotsi said the meeting will give all members of the Mochudi Centre Chiefs society an opportunity to know the state of affairs of their club and take decisions to resolve them. He said as such, expectation is that all members of the club, including members of its two warring factions will be present at the AGM. 

“This is the meeting of the society and all members of the society are expected to attend,” Mogomotsi explained.

The Chiefs PRO says with the two axis of power having failed to break the impasse of who should control the club, it is  not be remiss of the club to call on its general membership, who are the rightful owners to break the impasse. He said while the Registrar of Societies had advised that the two factions go for arbitration, that route seems unlikely as the Registrar does not have an arbitrator, hence the decision to let the general membership decide who should lead.  

“As the interested party and owners of the society, it may be in the interest of the club to submit the matter to the society’s general membership at the coming AGM to decide who they want to lead the club,” Mogomotsi explained.  Should the general membership agree to such, the Chiefs PRO believes there will be no need for the two warring factions to go for arbitration.

Meanwhile, the Chiefs Pro says he is expecting a peaceful resolution to the impasse. He says as a club, Chiefs has had internal wrangles before and has always managed to resolve them. 

The meeting is expected to start at 0900 in the morning. 

RELATED STORIES

Read this week's paper