14 Aug 2016

Maclean Letshwiti is the new Botswana Football Association (BFA) president.

He beat the outgoing president, Tebogo Sebego by 32-28 in a hotly contested election

Letshwiti's victory did not come easy since he had to win the elections in the second round after a re-run because both candidates failed to accumulate 70 per-cent of total votes.

In the first round, Letshwiti garnered 28 votes while Sebego was voted by 24 and Solomon Mantswe only managed six.

The first vice president is Segolame Ramotlhwa with 29 votes, while Basadi Akoonyatse and Dickson Gabanakgosi were voted by 26 and five respectively.

The position of second vice-president went to Marslow Motlogelwa who was voted by 30 delegates, while Tariq Babitseng accumulated 25 and Ngele Ngele got five.

Female additional members went to Suzie Montsho with 33, while Theresa Hirschfield had 22 votes and Tapaphiwa Gaebolae only canvased five.

 Masego Nchingane, Eatametse Olopeng and Senki Sesinyi were elected ordinary members. In his acceptance speech, Letshwiti said, “I think we need peace in football, we have to play football and not people, we are all football people not enemies”.

Furthermore, he said he was aware that leading football in Botswana was a challenging and difficult task.

He said in the previous four years, football was faced with myriad of challenges that affected players, coaches, referees, supporters and administrators.

“I therefore on behalf of football fraternity in Botswana, thank Sebego and his executive committee for the sacrifice they have made in providing leadership to the game of football,” he said.

He, however, said he was happy that candidates found it prudent to vote for him saying that alone was a clear manifestation of confidence in him.

Letshwiti further said he was confident that with support and cooperation of stakeholders, the new BFA national executive committee would take football to another level.

He said his committee would do its best to deliver to people’s expectations, adding that in the next 100 days, they would go for an induction for the new team.

The new president said they would also develop a strategic plan with assistance of FIFA adding that the region, media and partners in the private sector would also be involved in the planning. ENDS