05 Feb 2017

New Botswana Tennis Association (BTA) chairperson Dr Khaulani Fichani says his committee has much to do to restore the image of tennis in this country.

Dr Fichani, previously a BTA vice chairperson, assumed the association’s most powerful position unopposed during a controversial annual general meeting held at Oasis Motel in Tlokweng on Saturday.

The meeting which was a repeat of last November’s ill-tempered general meeting, when affiliates and the executive committee exchanged accusations of many forms of wrong-doing, started with a representative from Gaborone Club Dr Jerome Mafeni challenging the regularity of minutes from the previous annual general meeting.

However the minutes were reluctantly adopted which paved way for elections of the new committee to take place.

Controversy is never far away from BTA meetings and it appeared again in the middle of the elections when suspended former senior technical manager, Shingirai

Muzondiwa arrived apparently with a court order to stop the elections.

The Notwane Club Tennis Section man was unhappy that he had been ruled out of running for the chairmanship position after BTA slapped him with a three-year suspension recently for alleged acts of misconduct.

But Muzondiwa’s attempt to stop the meeting was unsuccessful and the elections continued with Dr Fichani ascending to the chairmanship unopposed.

Eight clubs which had complied with the requirements of the BTA constitution were allowed to participate during the elections. These were Notwane, Gaborone Club, SCASA, University of Botswana, BDF SSKB Lawn Tennis Club, BDF Donga, Orapa and Molepolole.

Following the elections, Dr Fichani explained that it was important for all stakeholders to pull together and address the challenges facing tennis, saying tennis was lagging behind other sporting codes.

“I will tell you, I get invited to events by the sport fraternity and when I sit there and see how other sports are doing, then you can see how far we have fallen far behind.

So there is a lot of work that we need to do as tennis,” Dr Fichani said in his first speech as BTA chief.

“To my incoming committee I hope that we will all be pulling together in the next two years and come up with brilliant ideas,” he added. 

Oaitse Thipe of Notwane became the vice chairperson unopposed, while Tefo Tefo of Orapa Tennis Club was elected the new secretary general after beating Boikobo Gaolebalwe of BDF SSKB by 11-5.

The rest of the positions saw no contests with Atang Mokgware becoming new treasurer and Shelton Benzah retaining his role as public relations and marketing manager.

Peter Nthele became the new senior technical manager, Serwalo Lesolame became the new junior technical manager, while Dr Mafeni and Katlego Keagoletsa became new additional members. BOPA