Ploy to sink Senki? ...as women football pioneer stands accused of sexual misconduct
Plo- Double Action’s director, Senki Sesinyi finds himself embroiled in the sexual harassment accusation reported in the past week. BG Correspondent reports.
This past week Botswana Football Association (BFA) suspended the director of Double Actions, Senki Sesinyi from football activities following allegations of sexual harassment levelled against him.
Early investigations by BG Sport has established that the accused remains calm despite these strong indictments with close sources telling this publication that, the Double Actions director is being peddled by some well-placed football officials in what they described as ‘a political witch-hunt’.
The association took the decision to suspend Senki two weeks ago during an emergency gathering comprising of at least five (5) National Executive Committee members (The BFA President and his 1st and 2nd vice president, an add member and the Botswana Football League (BFL) chairman.)
Close reports revealed to this publication that the victim attempted suicide by overdosing some pills, with at least over 20 consumed before collapsing and was rushed to the hospital.
“There has not been a thorough background check, the BFA are well within their rights to take immediate action, but, the said victim is someone who has a record of suffering with mental problems. It was not the first time she attempted suicide, the latest report is actually a third incident. We are currently worried that with all these reports coming out, she needs to be well protected—she missed her last appointment with the doctor in June so apparently there is some prescribed medication that she hasn’t taken for a while because it is a bit expensive,” a source close to the club said.
Police investigators together with some child-line officers have reportedly engaged teammates and all those close to the victim to get to the bottom of the matter continues.
Informants close to the BFA operations however maintain a strong stance on the matter and they believe that they have solid evidence, including messages exchanged between the accused and the victim, to argue their case regardless of the mental status of the victim.
Those in the corner of Sesinyi believe that there is a ploy to destabilize the club camp, arguing further that, there has never been a single report of such kind since he took charge of the side in the early 90’s. However, counter arguments from other sources closely monitoring the developments, state that the accused has always found cover from the association in previous reports of similar cases which now is not the case.
“This suspension really didn’t come as a surprise to us, we are going into the elections next year and suspensions always surface around this time, it is part of the plan to vet him out well in advance until after the elections.
Apparently he has expressed interest to challenge for the 2nd vice president position next year and they don’t want him—last year they campaigned against him and lured some delegates during private meetings to not vote for him so it is clear they don’t want him,” a source close to the Senki’s camp told this publication.
Efforts to get a comment from Sesinyi hit a snag with the veteran women football administrator declining to comment on the matter as it is still under investigation.
This publication has been well informed that the case is likely to open a can of worms with one of Double Action technical members reportedly involved in a similar act to that of the clubs’ director—further to it, one of the women national team coaches is also being investigated and suspensions are on the cards.
There has been calls for necessary structures to be put in place which will ensure that the victims are able to freely report cases of harassment and the matters to be dealt with accordingly—Sport Management Agency (SMA) last year trained Safe Guarding Officers of different sporting codes as a starting based to combat harassment in sport and ensure safety of athletes.
Meanwhile, Double Action are currently preparing to leave for South Africa where they will compete in the 3rd edition of the CAF women’s champions league COSAFA qualifiers, a regional qualifying tournament to the finals of the CAF Women’s Champions League, slated for the 30th of September until the 8th of October 2023.