Moshe eyes chess presidency

NTHAKO MAJORO

MASERU – The outgoing Secretary General of the Chess Federation of Lesotho (CFL), Mokone Moshe, is contesting for the organisation’s presidency. Elections take place this Saturday with Moshe and his team campaigning under the slogan ‘the new dawn for chess Lesotho.’

Moshe’s camp has Public Eye chess columnist Thabang Mapena contesting for the position of the Vice President, Mphetole Mona is eying the Treasurer’s post and Tlhoriso Morienyane contesting for the position of the Secretary General. “Yes, I am contesting for the presidency of the Chess Federation of Lesotho and we (he and his team) have prepared enough for the challenge,” said Mokone in an interview on Monday.

“We have what we called a new dawn for chess Lesotho in which we are appealing to the chess people to vote for change as we are aiming to revive and develop chess in Lesotho.” Moshe further said with the new dawn slogan they are talking to the chess people who are eligible to vote in the upcoming elections, including those who are yet to know whether or not would be given the voting power on the day as well as the people who are interested in the development of chess.

“We are saying democracy is very crucial in sports and in the country in general, and therefore we want to practice it in our sport in order to involve all people; disabled and not. This is not only our dream but we also have men and women who are skilled in doing so.” Moshe said if elected into power this Saturday they would ensure that local chess becomes clean, starting with the accountability.

“As local chess administrators and people in general know that chess’s accountability is very poor; we would make sure that the issue of the accountability will be a thing of the past.” He further said: “I mean we want to see chess been audited after all the ten years of none accountability which made people to doubt our administration.” Moshe said they are going to develop policies which at the end of the day would help them in terms of the accountability, like players’ selection criteria, amongst other things.

“That says we should be answerable to everything we are doing as administrators, and I am saying let us do away with maladministration.” Moshe said they are also looking to have a sound chess development with clear policies. “We know where we come from, where we are and where we are going. So we know what we are talking about when we talk about chess development.” Moshe feels that it’s about time that chess is not only played in Maseru but all ten districts of Lesotho.

“Chess should not only be played in Maseru where we are all crowded but should be moved to other districts where we will be able to decentralise power to the districts’ subcommittees.” Moshe said that would make it easy for the districts’ subcommittees to start building from there. “This is because people who are based in Qacha’s Nek, Mokhotlong and Thaba-Tseka know what happens in those districts than I do because I am based in Maseru. That’s what we mean when we talk about development in broad terms as it is not limited to players, coaches and administrators.”

Moshe reiterated: “This is quite broad. We want to develop players, administrators, tournament organisers and teachers.” Talking about teachers, Moshe said they are the most important mentors as far as sports development is concerned. “Teachers are mentors of players from primary, high school until tertiary where they start to be matured. Therefore, they are the most important mentors for development of any sport.” Moshe also said having numerous chess administrators in the country would be good for the development of the sport since every district would be able to hold meaningful tournaments.

“Again, in order to develop chess we are going to include women. That is why we have two women in our election camp team, one contesting for the PRO post and the other for an addition member.” The two are Ntšepiseng Letoao and ’Maretšepile Malemoha (for the Deputy Secretary General-PRO) and (for the position of a member) respectively.