Moorosi Tsiane
FOLLOWING a period of protracted squabbles, Lioli finally held its elections on Sunday and elected former president Lebohang Thotanyana after a one-year absence.
When he left last year, Thotanyana had been Lioli president since 2008 until he resigned. The team resolved to elect an interim committee which was supposed to hold the office for one year until the elections this year.
Under Thotanyana, Lioli became a force and steered the team to its third league title and went on to win three league titles to make it six in total.
Lioli won 16 titles under his leadership and he remains their most successful president with other successes being that Lioli was the first local club to pay allowances to players.
Apart from four league titles Tse Nala also won four Independence cup titles, six Top8 trophies and one Alliance Winter Challenge and Bokamoso trophies respectively.
Naturally thousands of Lioli supporters are happy that Thotanyana is back to lead the team.
What worries me is that when Thotanyana left the team, Lioli had long lost its mojo. Another section of the supporters were accusing Thotanyana of running the team as his own property. This is when Thotanyana and his committee decided to resign.
Thotanyana is returning with the majority of his old committee members. The likes of vice presidents Mothakhathi Mthoalo, Hopolang Nathane, Sello Monamoli and Chaka Chaka are all back.
Now the question that I am asking myself is, what is it that has changed this time around that made them to return after they left the team last year?
Did the Lioli supporters just vote these gentlemen back into the team out of desperation to oust the interim committee, which they were unimpressed with or they actually have faith that Thotanyana can change things?
While I don’t have a problem with Thotanyana returning to the Lioli hot seat, I am worried that the supporters may have acted out of desperation to dethrone the interim committee and they chose to deal with the devil they know.
I say this because before Thotanyana and others left, Lioli had already been in trouble.
Perhaps Thotanyana and co return energised with fresh ideas. He has already said he intends to change the manner in which they are running their team with a new organisational structure led by a chief executive officer.
It will be interesting to see Lioli becoming a force they used to be and increasing the competition in the local league.
I wish Thotanyana and his committee the best of luck.
