Africa-Press – Lesotho. The Lesotho Football Association (LEFA) secretary general, Mokhosi Mohapi, is in Cotonou, Benin, for the CAF General Assembly where elections will be held for the CAF Executive Committee. The term of the elected committee will run from 2023 until 2027.
The election will be held today and Mohapi has been campaigning for votes for a seat in the CAF executive representing the COSAFA region ever since he announced his candidature a few weeks ago.
It will not be an easy ride for Mohapi as he will be challenged by two other people being Walter Nyamilandu Manda (Malawi) and Mohamad Ally Samir Sobha (Mauritius).
The proposition for Mohapi to run was made by other CAF secretary generals (SGs) after the realisation that he was one of the longest serving SGs on the continent.
Mohapi said it was a tough decision to make but he is not one to shy away from challenges. His candidature was blessed by LEFA president Advocate Salemane Phafane who gave him permission to run.
There is an interesting dynamic. Both Mohapi’s challengers are presidents of their associations. However, it is not unusual for a candidate who does not hold a presidential position to contest for elections and win, it has happened before.
Mohapi has previously described his candidature as an example of the inclusivity that FIFA is preaching about. As a matter of fact, the president of CAF himself, South Africa’s Patrice Motsepe, has never led an association before.
If Mohapi wins, his presence in the CAF Executive would bring a different perspective of being a secretary general, and he has previously said during his campaign that it is an opportunity to feed the market on how Lesotho sees itself contributing to African football.
“We just want to shift paradigms and see what will become of the shifted paradigm.
We have circulated our manifesto and we are going to feed the market about how Lesotho sees itself contributing to the pan-African football environment,” he said.
“They should be open to seeing the SGs coming to the party and sharing their experiences and presenting different perspectives because they know they have been running football and continue to do so,” he said. On top of that, a victory for Mohapi would also allow Lesotho to have a say where major decisions are taken.
“We will always suffer because there is no voice; there is no real time information dissemination as it happens, we get it through a memo, a letter, the thinking behind that resolution we often don’t know about it,” he said.
“Because we don’t know about them we are left in the dark.
That is why we are not doing very well because we don’t know the thinking of some of the things, we are forced every time to respond when we don’t really understand the issues,” he said.
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