Legitimacy threatens LTA elective conference

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NTHAKO MAJORO

MASERU – It remains unclear whether executive committee elections to the Lesotho Taekwondo Association (LTA) set for tomorrow at the Lesotho National Olympic Committee (LNOC) headquarters in Maseru will be considered legitimate. According to sources within the association, tomorrow’s conference is unconstitutional, regardless of whether eventually a new committee will be elected.

What makes tomorrow’s conference unconstitutional amongst others, according to the sources, is that names nominees were yet to be submitted by yesterday. Again, according to the LTA constitution, member clubs shall be notified two weeks before the conference.

Sources revealed to this paper that some of the member clubs had not received any communication regarding tomorrow’s elective conference. LTA spokesperson, Sek’hok’he Molikoe, confirmed in an interview with Public Eye yesterday that the names of nominees were yet to be submitted.

Molikoe further said the LTA constitution is silent on the when the names of nominees should be submitted, saying it was, however, agreed that the names should all be submitted by yesterday. “The constitution is silent on that,” said Molikoe said. “But the names of nominees should all be submitted by today (Thursday).”

But contrary to Molikoe’s assertion Article 9 (9.2) of the LTA constitution clearly stipulates timelines for submission nominated persons. “The date of the conference shall be notified by writing fourteen days prior to elections. Within this period, the names of candidates shall be notified to the Secretary General on a form and in a manner prescribed by the committee,” reads the subject Article. Molikoe admitted, however, that this is a wrong practice, saying he thought this has been happening because of the conflicts within taekwondo.

He further revealed: “It’s a problem. We are still pursuing them (clubs) to submit the names of the nominees. They should change this attitude. You will find that they already have names slated for executive positions which they want to keep secret from us until the last day.”

Molikoe said clubs knew very well who they wanted to contest for the elections. “But since the conflicts, clubs no longer trust each other. Every club knows who they are working with.”

Molikoe is contesting for the Vice President Administration position and said he even didn’t know who else was contesting for the same position. One of the presidential candidates and who is a former LTA president, Moshoeshoe Molapo, said his club, Khubetsoana Taekwndo Club had no received any letter regarding the elections.

“As the caretaker of the club I have not received such a letter,” said Molapo yesterday. “I would have known even if such letter was received by one of my club members, but still I would be surprised why it was not given to me as the caretaker of the club.”

Molapo said this was because Khubetsoana Taekwondo Club wrote to the LTA to notify the committee that “I am the one who is responsible for the technical administration of the club.” The conference, according to the LTA constitution, was supposed to be held on March 31 last year but Molikoe told this paper last year that they couldn’t proceed due to the COVID-19 lockdown restrictions.

It was then rescheduled for November last year, but again it the conference failed to continue. It was said at the time that a court order following the High Court case lodged by other clubs who were not happy with the election process posed a challenge; the clubs also sought to know which of them were considered eligible for election.

The judgment of the court, according to sources, was that LTA should recompile a list of the clubs eligible to participate at the elections, and that it should also hold special general meeting and try to amend their constitution concerning the process of elections. But sources said instead of holding a special general meeting per the judgment, the LTA called an elective conference.

The LTA’s letter to the clubs, titled ‘Notice of Annual General Meeting’, dated February 26, 2021, reads: “Lesotho Taekwondo Association kindly invites your club to the Annual General Meeting to be held on the 13th March, 2021, at 10:00hrs at Lesotho National Olympic Committee (LNOC).

The court has ordered the committee to recompile the list of the clubs to participate at Annual Meeting in accordance with the constitution. Therefore, LTA has made a resolution that clubs that will be allowed (to) take part in the up-coming elective AGM shall have paid subscriptions fee of M300 and must have participated in at least one tournament in the current committee’s term.

The resolution was done to accommodate all the LTA clubs that their membership has stopped for failing to comply with Article 3.1(c).”

But Molapo, who announced some months ago that he would be contesting for the presidency of the LTA again, said they wrote to both sport mother-bodies, Lesotho Sport and Recreation Commission (LSRC) and the Lesotho National Olympic Committee (LNOC) to intervene. He said if the two bodies continue to ignore their appeal and facilitate tomorrow’s elections, they will seek legal recourse.

“If the mother-bodied would not take action, we are likely going to continue with the litigation.” Molapo said he found out that not only his club will not be participating in tomorrow’s elections, but a number of other LTA affiliates.

One of our sources said what will also pose a problem at the conference tomorrow is that the LTA leadership has not applied the constitution on the eligibility of the clubs to participate at the elections. “The committee has applied its resolution and not the constitution,” said the source.

“The constitution says clubs shall pay a subscription fee of M300 three months before the elections, while the committee’s resolution is that clubs shall pay M300 without specifying time frame in which such payment shall be received.”

The LTA goes to this controversial elective conference after president, Moorosane Nkesi, and Vice President-Finance Molupe Molupe resigned.

Nkesi told this paper in an earlier interview that he took the decision to step down, amongst other things, because the committee had overstayed their term of office. Public Eye has also found out that Molupe also quit because of similar reasons.

 

 

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