Internal strife and bickering between the executive committee of Botswana Badminton Association (BBA) has reportedly crippled operations and rendered the Association comatose. Reports indicate that BBA has not been able to do anything since the beginning of the year owing to lack of communication between executive committee members.
BBA Public Relations Officer (PRO), Modisaotsile Badubi recently resigned from his post, saying he could not work with people who harbour ulterior motives and are not committed to sports. Because of internal strife at the Association, the BBA has failed to hold some key events that were pencilled in its calendar, including the National Junior Championships, Ordinary General Meeting (OGM) and a Training Camp. Modasiaotsile Badubi, the disgruntled PRO who has acted as the Association’s mouth piece since the November 2014 elections has described the situation at the BBA office as tense and no longer conducive to work in.
“Some members are no longer interested in carrying out their responsibilities, which has slowed down progress. There is also infighting within the executive committee,” he said.
Meanwhile, BBA Vice President (VP) Administration, Prince Molome has labelled the Association’s President, Godfrey Mathumo as an incompetent person who failed to take charge of his office and has allowed some people to do as they please.
“He doesn’t even attend meetings. He is a weak leader who has failed to take action against those who break the rules. The President doesn’t even convene meetings and everyone is in the dark. I tried talking to him a couple of times and clearly my efforts were not bearing fruit, so I gave up. Now our PRO has resigned due to Mathumo’s incompetency,” he charged.
Molome said they intend to convene an emergency meeting to update members on the current situation at the Association.
“We have learnt a lesson and going forward we will be very careful who we elect into office. Next time we will conduct a thorough background check to make sure that we elect capable people,” he said.
Source who preferred anonymity have revealed that the President has isolated everyone else at BBA and only takes counsel from the Treasurer, who they accuse of being clueless about badminton.
“They even make decisions on behalf of the Technical Head regarding the national team,” they said.
Meanwhile, Mathumo has refuted allegations by the outgoing PRO that BBA failed to stage all their scheduled events so far, insisting that they only missed one event.
“The events you are talking about were not held because most executive members are based outside Gaborone; while those who are here are always held up by work commitments. We will call a meeting to sort this issue out month end,” said Mathumo.
