Who is snubbing who?

Head-honchos of Botswana Football Association (BFA) stand accused of dragging their feet in the Botswana and Namibia (BONA) joint bid to host the finals of the African football showpiece in 2027.

Highly placed sources have told this publication that BFA President Maclean Letshwiti, in particular, is said to have not invested expected input, something which has raised eye-brows amongst the leadership entrusted to compile a strong argument for the two nations to host.

BONA 2027, a brainchild project by the current Minister of Youth, Gender, Sport and Culture, and also the Member of Parliament for Mogoditshane, Tumiso Rakgare, is said to have increasingly grown frustrated by the BFA president, whose input has been described as “negative” by close sources to the developments.

Letshwiti enjoys support of Confederations of African Football (CAF) president Patrice Motsepe and also sits in the CAF committees and his influence and pull power was thought to be ideal to drive the two nations’ bid; and that has not been the case.

This publication can confirm that in the wake of the announcement of the BONA 2027 Bid-Committee last year, Letshwiti was also left perplexed and far from impressed by some of the names that were included to lead the exercise.

The BFA president allegedly had qualms with one soft spoken Segolame Ramotlhwa whom he suspended from all football activities leading up to the BFA 2020 elective congress. Letshwiti is said to have felt undermined by the lack of engagement during the process of making the Bid-Committee appointments.

Rakgare however argued that, vastly experienced Ramotlhwa, who served under three (3) different BFA presidents will bring the much needed know-how to navigate the thresholds of the African continent and help the bid-committee achieve its mandate.

Current Permanent Secretary to the Ministry of Sports, Kitso Kemoeng, also has a standing case against the BFA following his unceremonious exit from Lekidi offices in 2016.

The veteran administrator’s appointment by the Minister was also disapproved by Letshwiti, as the rejected Kemoeng now returned at a higher office than that of the BFA.

It is also reported that Letswhiti wanted to have Tshiamo Rantao in place of Phadza Butale, a move that was strongly rejected by the local echelons of power in this exercise.

Butale, a lawyer by profession and is currently one of the government’s chief negotiators with the European Union and also heads negotiations with Africa Continental Free Trade agreement, has also captained the senior national team. Another name in mention is that of Negros Kgosietsile, former Botswana National Olympic Committee (BNOC) president, who was lobbied by the BFA president but the latter’s interest were once again snubbed.

“He is yet to publicly declare his vote to this exercise and that is someone who is expected to be playing a leading role in this project. This is a painful and sad situation because no one can dispute the fact that Letswhiti is influential and his connections with Patrice Motsepe could benefit the two nations,” a source said.

Letshwiti has come out guns blazing to dismiss accusations by his detractors, labelling the allegations as “Absolute rubbish.

“Maybe the problem is that I know more than them; I want it more than them. I am straight and confident; I am not stupid. I am an international football administrator, and I want a good professional job to be done. There is nothing negative about hosting; the winning the bid will change the landscape of our football, it will completely change everything, it is an economic stimulus,” Letshwiti responded.

“Only an incompetent individual will insinuate that I am not behind this; the only problem is that, maybe we have incompetent people trying to lead, the accusations are absolute rubbish,” he added.

Quizzed on his stand regarding declaring his vote in the process, the BFA president told BG Sport that, “I won’t declare my vote, I don’t have to. The bid is the responsibility of the government, once the bid is made, I’ll start the campaign, and once the bid is there, people will see me,” he said.

The BFA President further told this publication that he is working well with the chairman of the bid-committee, Ashford Mamelodi, whom he says, they enjoy close cordial relationship.

“I work very well with Mamelodi, we are working extremely hard and I am confident that we will get the bid,” Letshwiti added.

Ruben Reddy architect, a facility audit company from South Africa has been tasked to audit possible venues to be used from both countries.

It is however reported that, Letshwiti advocated for another company, Ian Riley, but the company could not provide a tax clearance certificate after filing in an interest to do the audit process.

The company was rejected and the BFA president’s efforts once again fell off by the way-side as tension continue to grow.