Tenacious Mfolo survives Lekidi
FOOTBALLIt has been a full year since the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Botswana Football Association (BFA) Mfolo Mfolo was appointed. Mfolo assumed the BFA hot seat on a two -year contract last year September.Recent history has proven that BFA CEO position had become one of the hottest seats in the local sports landscape.
In the past Mfolo’s predecessors found it hard to finish their tenure at Lekidi. Many of them barely made it to six months before becoming casualties to office politics. Prior to Mfolo’s appointment, the latest resignation was that of Ookeditse Malesu who only lasted for six months as BFA CEO. Malesu took over from Kitso Kemoeng who parted ways with the association in December 2016.Speaking to BG Sport in an interview this week, Mfolo said indeed the position requires lots of guts in order to stay on board.
“This is not child play, it is indeed a seat that is red hot and not all can handle the pressure that comes with occupying it,” Mfolo said. Nevertheless, unlike others before him, the dedicated Mfolo has no intentions of leaving BFA anytime soon and given a chance, he would actually like to serve BFA beyond his two -year term. Mfolo has conceded that it is not easy to lead an organisation like BFA. However, he believes he has learnt enough to prolong his stay at Lekidi.
“The BFA culture is the one that CEOs come and go and for me I have realised that I need to go an extra mile and also be smart in my decision making. When you become CEO, you lose a lot in your life, your social life is distracted, I come here very early and always the last one to leave,” Mfolo noted.The BFA boss explained that when dealing with external stakeholders such as FIFA and CAF, there has to be constant communication.
There are emails flooding his mailbox that require him to peruse files in the office. Mfolo often finds himself feeling caged and barely does much outside the confines of BFA.Mfolo said his one-year journey has been a rather bumpy ride that often left him gasping for air at his office in Lekidi. “Nothing is more frustrating that trying to implement reforms and people are resistant, that is what was happening in this place,” he said.
However, when he first set foot at BFA, he knew it will not be a walk in the park and a dizzying roller coaster ride was in store for him. Nevertheless, the BFA boss said he was ready to grab the proverbial bull by the horns. According to Mfolo, all was not well within the association when he arrived, but he approached things with the mind of educating, inspiring and motivating all to enable the BFA staff to understand his vision better.
Like any other leader out there, he wanted to bring about positive change at BFA, he wanted to implement some reforms and saw the need to urgently take the staff from where they were, to a place where he wanted to drive the association towards.“I looked at the human capital and realised that most of them had never worked anywhere besides BFA.
So, there was a strong and dominant culture that needed to be broken so that they understand that there should be a turnaround shift in the way things needed to be done,” he said.He said that it took quite some time for them to make a turnaround and it was taking a lot of energy till things eventually took a turn for the better.
Among other things Mfolo realised they were achieving less with more, a situation which he felt was not ideal for any association. In terms of finances there was an over expenditure at BFA, issues of non-compliance crept in with the association resorting to using funds meant for certain projects. There was also an exorbitant expenditure on overtimes; even the Botswana National Sport Commission (BNSC) is alleged to have raised concern on the matter.
“We have started cleaning, the BFA finances are looking good because we are exercising compliance and control and if we do not have budgets for certain projects, we might bench it rather than compromising our relationship here.Mfolo noted that he smoked out worrisome areas where the association sometimes spent money unnecessarily. Mfolo said he realised that there were instances of living beyond one's means. However, it was a challenge to change the mindset of others who were resisting to his instructions.
Quizzed about the P600 000 funds that are alleged to have been stolen right under their nose recently by one of their officers, Mfolo explained that the association had so many bank accounts, about 22 to be precise, so the monthly reconciliation of the bank accounts and suppliers seemed too heavy for the BFA finance department to handle.
The BFA finance department he said felt caged and the alleged thieves might have taken advantage of the situation. Nevertheless, they are busy trying to normalise the situation and they are on high alert. BFA has moved on to do the proper thing of centralising the accounts for easy monitoring. They have reduced the number of accounts to five.
Currently he is satisfied with how things are moving at BFA; he foresees growth and a bright future ahead. Mfolo described the appointment of the new Technical Director, Serame Letsoaka as a blessing to the association. “The technical department is the spine of the federation, we are here because of football and hence the reason that we need to ensure that the technical department is functioning well. He describes Serame as a man who brings positive change and there is already noticeable change at BFA.
On his relationship with BFA president, Mfolo said that they have their own differences however they are both striving for excellence at BFA. “We can argue on opinions but I respect him as my leader, he holds me accountable and I have to deliver as per expectation,” he said. In his remaining one- year term, his main area of focus will be to bring financial stability to BFA. Mfolo further seeks to produce more coaches and develop upcoming young footballers.