… as Khojane is elected new chairperson
Leemisa Thuseho
MATLAMA’s newly-elected president, Moeketsi Khojane, has vowed to revive the club’s glory days and restore its dignity by securing more sponsors and uniting the supporters, among others.
Khojane claimed the club’s hot-seat amid a dramatic elective Annual General Meeting (AGM) held at Police Training College (PTC) on Saturday.
There was commotion and a vicious exchange of vulgar language between Khojane’s camp and those in favour of outgoing chairperson Paballo Makakole, who ended up abandoning the elections. As a result, most nominees from Khojane’s side ended up claiming the respective seats they were vying for after the withdrawal of the Makakole-led team.
In his five-year term, Khojane will be deputised by Hubbard Monaheng, who was also elected unchallenged, while Thabang Letsie will be secretary-general and deputised by Mosa Masilo. The duo was also unchallenged in their respective portfolios.
The other contestant who was not challenged was Lerotholi Letsie, who is now the club’s treasurer.
The team’s manager is now Limpho Tšephe, while communications and marketing manager is
Ramafahla Thamae. Thapelo Mosoeunyane, Paseka Ramokoatsi, Lerato Thamae and Sefakoana Letela complete the club’s executive as committee members.
However, drama started to unfold at Saturday’s elections when some supporters were denied entry into the conference after being classified as unqualified voters. Those were supporters holding the 2023/24 season membership, whereas only members holding the 2022/23 season cards were eligible to participate in the AGM and the elections.
This did not go down well with the Makakole faction, which argued they had, all along, been made to believe the new card holders would vote.
The situation then degenerated into a slanging match soon after Makakole opened the meeting to give his report in relation to his five-year term which ended on Saturday.
The chaos was as a result of those who were regarded as ineligible voters demanding to be refunded their M60 membership fees, forcing Makakole to halt his presentation.
Thereafter, Makakole held a brief consultation with the club’s patrons, Motlatsi Ramafole, Refiloe Mokebe and Matsobane Putsoa, and some executive mmbers and after the meeting, it was announced that the patrons had resolved to cancel the AGM.
But following the announcement, there was a series of long meetings outside the PTC hall and after almost three hours of waiting, the supporters were called back into the hall for the AGM to proceed.
However, some members had already left, especially those who were believed to be supporting Makakole.
Back inside the hall, Putsoa said they could not decide for the club as patrons, but would rather leave that to the supporters, hence the change of mind for the meeting to proceed.
“After the meetings, we noticed that we as patrons, did have the power to cancel the AGM, hence we concluded to withdraw our previous decision of cancelling the AGM and give the supporters the chance to make their own resolutions.
“We initially called the meeting off because we wanted to avoid the chaos that was about to happen; we wanted to protect the team,” Putsoa said.
After this announcement, the supporters decided to proceed with the elections despite the absence of other members who had already left following the decision to call off the AGM.
Following his election, Khojane said his executive was ready to hit the ground running in restoring the team’s dignity and further assist it achieve financial stability.
For the past two seasons, Matlama have been in the news for failing to pay players and the technical team on time due to financial challenges.
Again, the team currently depends on one main sponsor, Alliance Insurance Company, but according to Khojane, all this would now be history.
“We are going to put an end to the disappointment of not paying players on time or giving them half salaries,” he said.
“But this will be achieved only if we have many sponsors and ways of generating income rather than depending on one sponsor. It is shameful for a big team like Matlama to be having one sponsor.”
Khojane also said the other major thing they are going to focus on was uniting Matlama.
“The elections are now over, and we are going to work on uniting Matlama as this team does not belong to certain individuals but the supporters. It is only through them that we will get sponsors and make our team thrive,” declared Khojane.
Meanwhile, the new Khojane-led committee further held a press conference at Pitso Ground on Monday where they said the legitimacy of their appointment remained unchallenged.
“Up to now, no one has challenged the legitimacy of this committee, and if there is such a challenge, we are ready to face it,” new secretary-general, Letsie said.
