Mohoanyane elected COSAFA executive member  

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NTHAKO MAJORO

MASERU – Lesotho football administrator, Khiba Mohoanyane, has been elected as the new ordinary member of the Council of Southern Africa Football Associations (COSAFA). The election took place during the organisation’s elective general assembly in Windhoek, Namibia last Saturday. Mohoanyane, who is the Lesotho Football Association (LeFA)’s First Vice President and also the President of the Leribe District Football Association, said being elected as the COSAFA executive member meant his scope of responsibility as a football administrator would be bigger than it used to be.

“Now that I am a member of the COSAFA executive committee, it means all the 14 COSAFA member countries are now under my leadership, including Lesotho,” said Mohoanyane in an interview with Public Eye on Tuesday. “But you can understand that the scope of responsibility is now bigger than before.” Mohoanyane said lobbying for the COSAFA position was not as easy as one would have thought it would be. But he said they were used to it as sports administrators so it was not a new thing to him as one of the longest football managers in the region. “We are used to elections. We live by elections throughout in sports, being it locally or internationally.

“So, yes, it goes with lobbying and you cannot say it is difficult or easy to do as most of the time when you are lobbying someone to vote for you it is not often that he/she can be honest with you,” said Mohoanyane. “They cannot tell you that they are not going to vote for you. All of them will promise to vote for you up until the election day when you will see for yourself whether they kept the promise or not.” But still, Mohoanyane said lobbying would remain part of the elections and one must lobby in order to be elected at the end of the day.

Mohoanyane has been elected together with Timothy Shongwe of Eswatini, Walter Nyamilandu-Mandla of Malawi, Faizal Sidat of Mozambique and Brenda Kunda of Zambia as five COSAFA ordinary members. The President of the Angolan Football Federation, Artur de Almeida e Silva, has been elected as the new COSAFA President, while the Comoros Football Federation President, Said Ali Said Athouman has been elected Vice President.

Both Silva and Athouman were elected uncontested. Mohoanyane follows in the footsteps of other Lesotho football administrators who served in the COSAFA executive committee before, namely; the late LeFA President Thabo Makakole and the current LeFA President Advocate Salemane Phafane. Makakole is a former COSAFA ordinary member and chairman of the body’s finance committee, while Phafane is the former COSAFA Vice President and former member of the COSAFA finance committee. The term of office for the COSAFA executive committee is four years.

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