Africa-Press – Lesotho. The real battle has begun between beleaguered coach, Teele Ntšonyana, and the Lesotho Football Association (LeFA) as gripe leading to the congress gets nastier.
This emanates from the announcement made by the reinstated LeFA president, Advocate Salemane Phafane, during the congress last Saturday that Ntšonyana and Lesoma Tlhomola had been suspended.
Ntšonyana and Lesoma were both supposed to be part of the congress as representatives of the Lesotho Coaches Association in their capacity as Secretary General and Vice Secretary respectively.
Both officials ended up not making it to the congress, with Ntšonyana revealing to Public Eye on Tuesday this week that they could not attend the congress because they were not accredited for the assembly.
Ntšonyana said the Lesotho Coaches Association was, therefore, represented by its president Letlatsa Mampe and former Likuena defender, Motlatsi Maseela.
He said this was despite both Mampe and Maseela not having been authorised by the coaches’ association. Ntšonayana said the worst part regarding Maseela is that he had resigned as the coaches’ association vice president prior to the congress.
He said testimony to the fact that the two were not authorised was that they did not vote but were, instead, just part of the observers. When Phafane informed the congress about the duo’s suspension, he revealed he had just heard from the coaches’ association president, Letlatsa Mampe, that they were suspended.
Phafane made the announcement shortly before he could be re-elected to LeFA’s top post. Sources told Public Eye that Phafane made such announcement so as to avoid being asked about the endless squabbles between the football mother body and Ntšonyana, which had intensified ahead of the elective congress.
LeFA has accused both Ntšonyana and Tlhomola, as well as a member of the District Football Association-Maseru (DiFA Maseru), Mokake Keketsi, of trying to disrupt the elective congress.
This is while the fight between Ntšonyana and LeFA itself started some years ago, with the most recent being the infamous incident where the association threw Ntšonyana out of a Federation of International Football Association (FIFA) Instructors’ Course which was held in Maseru earlier this year.
Back to the Phafane’s announcement, Ntšonyana confirmed that he had indeed received a letter of suspension from Mampe just ahead of the elective congress but the former Likuena striker laughed it off.
“Yes, I have received such a letter from Mampe, saying he has suspended me and that’s why Phafane was brave enough to tell the congress that I was suspended.
“But I don’t take that as a suspension because Mampe has no right to suspend any member of the organisation since we had long resolved that such decisions (to suspend members) should be done by an independent panel,” said Ntšonyana.
Ntšonyana, therefore, said he and Tlhomola will continue with their office work as their association’s secretaries. He indicated they were still continuing to write letters to LeFA regarding the same recent incident in which LeFA failed to accredit them for the congress.
Ntšonyana further revealed that his office will call Mampe to order, and that the coaches’ association was likely to take disciplinary measures against him over the incident.
