What is next Mr Sebego?

It clearly becomes a source of worry when elected representatives take over to run organisations that they should be offering oversight role to. This quite clearly amounts to conflict of interest. It implies that instead of offering fiduciary role they are looking at ways in which they could take over and be paid employees. I have serious doubt as to whether it is for those capabilities that they were elected in the first place.

Botswana Football Association (BFA) National Executive Committee finds itself in this undesirable situation. Two of their members who were recently elected to offer oversight role to the organization are now employees of the same. This is untidy.

One elected official can be given the role to act on some capacity for a few months, just as a fill gap measure. Two officials are just too many! This is out of hand. BFA President Tebogo Sebego should get sensitive to public views and primarily his soccer constituency.

Just now the two elected officials – acting chief executive officer Tariq Babitseng and the acting chief operations officer, Enerst Nthobelang - who are now serving at the secretariat bring in a new dimension of governance. What happens when one of them undermines the other – they are both elected representatives afterall. We have to return to the desirable – these structures of governance should be divorced from each other completely. None should belong to both.

This is what accountability means – the secretariat should account to the executive, with no one sitting in both. The picture emerging from the executive is that of people looking keenly at the benefits on the other end and doing all to get a share.

The worst case scenario is when the executive creates chaos within the organisation they have to oversee in order to dismiss the employees and then comfortably take the positions. The developments at the BFA are unprecedented. I didn’t expect them. But of course for every change there is a price. My only hope is that the executive listens!

They should instead of settling themselves comfortably at the secretariat offices go out of their way to look for qualified employees to run the organisation. These are essentially soccer politicians! They have to stick to the politics and leave administrators to do their job.

It is their job to look for qualified people. If they cannot timeously deliver on that, and even more create structures favouring succession in the organization, then there is a huge problem. Sebego must quickly restore confidence in his leadership by clearing people that essentially formed his elections team out of the association office and employ the more qualified.

It implies that there was something sinister in their campaign.They had us all fooled; it could be assumed! More so for those they defeated at the polls. People do not forget; in future it is some of these actions that Sebego’s leadership would be judged on. If these are just stunts, one hopes they will come to end.

Otherwise the local soccer world cannot help but wonder: what is next? First there was the membership saga that led to disqualification of Police XI and Security Systems; then chief executive resigns; and then members of the BFA executive move camp into the secretariat. What is next Mr Sebego?

We want good news – the employment of necessary substantive officers at the BFA secretariat in a transparent way and further to ensure good preparations for the Zebras in international competitions! The stunts are for some movie junkies; some fiction undertakings, not serious stuff where tax-payers’ money is spent.