Mamelodi battles depression, faces suspension
Mqondisi Dube | Tuesday September 13, 2016 15:39
Mamelodi had taken the Botswana Football Association (BFA) to court challenging his transfer from the BPL to the mother body. However, the case was thrown-out.
Mamelodi is reportedly battling stress related depression and hypertension as the deepening BPL crisis takes its toll. He was suspended in March over reports of maladministration, but later reinstated in August just before the BFA general assembly.
But the election of a new BFA national executive committee (NEC) led by Maclean Letshwiti, has seen Mamelodi’s woes mount. The BPL has pressed ahead with a forensic audit while there have been efforts to move Mamelodi to the BFA while investigations are ongoing. Mamelodi tried to resist the move and took the matter to court but lost. Now, reports are that a meeting was convened over the weekend where it was agreed Mamelodi should be slapped with a fresh suspension.
“Yes, it was agreed that we suspend Mamelodi. The NEC was irked by his decision to take his matter to court. It is normal practice that when you are being investigated, you are either suspended or forced to go on leave. There is nothing peculiar,” a source who attended the meeting said.
Mamelodi was expected to be served with a suspension letter although he is still recuperating at home after doctors gave him more time to rest. He is expected back in office next week.
“It is clear that they want him, hook or crook. At least they could have been humane enough to let him recover and return to work before suspending him. They appear to be in a hurry to get rid of him,” another source close to Mamelodi said.
It is reported that the new beMOBILE Premiership season will not start until Mamelodi is removed from office, with the NEC convinced the forensic audit will turn-up sufficient evidence to pin the burly administrator.
“I know that he is seeing a therapist and is suffering from depression. Is this the way you treat a man when he is already down? Since his suspension in March, his health has deteriorated. Even before he was recalled back to office in August, he was under the doctor’s observation. He returned because he wanted to see a conclusion to last season and the beginning of a new one,” said the source.
Mamelodi has reportedly told associates the outcome of the audit will have to be tested in court and could potentially open a can of worms. Efforts to get a comment from Mamelodi proved futile as his numbers were unreachable while BFA president, Letshwiti told a press conference last week that the audit will go ahead and that the suspension of an employee during an investigation is an international best practice.