Despite the low salaries, the Lobatse side has been struggling to keep up with payments, with players unpaid since February. Gunners, bottom of the Botswana Premier League, were thrown into further turmoil this week when Masisi resigned, joining a host of other committee members who dumped the club. Mapantsula were forced to call an urgent executive committee meeting yesterday where some critical decisions were taken.
Ngwamotsoko said a decision was taken to co-opt members to replace the departed officials. “We were able to hold our meeting yesterday with the remaining committee members where I was appointed club chairman,” Ngwamotsoko said.
Ngwamotsoko has experienced a roller-coaster few weeks at the club after he recently announced he was quitting his post as vice chairperson, before somersaulting after he was asked to stay on. He said his tenure will last until the club holds its Annual General Meeting (AGM) in July. “A new committee will be voted in at our AGM in July where my reign as the chairman might come to an end or be extended," he said. The club chairperson's post was not the only one left vacant as the secretary-general, assistant secretary-general, and public relations officer also quit. “With other posts that were left vacant, we took a decision to co-opt and we hope to see the targeted individuals agree to our pleas,” said Ngwamotsoko. He, however, said he was not in a position to disclose the names of the earmarked officials until they agree to join the committee.
He said the committee has set three targets to be achieved before the end of the season. “We want to save the team from relegation, which is our first target,” he said. “Our second target will be to take care of players' welfare through raising funds and commercialising the team,” he added. It is said players last got paid back in February when the last grant from the league office was paid out.
The committee's other target is to appoint the club president, with the position vacant for some time now. Ngwamotsoko concurred with returning coach, Daniel ‘Chico’ Nare's weekend claims that the team was neglected and only trained with two balls. “When Nare came we only had two balls for training and he is telling the truth. There were two balls because the previous coaches always brought their own balls,” Ngwamotsoko said. He said it started with Oupa Kowa and Phillimon Makwengwe followed suit as well as Thabo Motang.
This meant that the club did not focus on buying its own balls, leading to the situation the team finds itself in. The committee is expected to meet again on Friday to deliberate on these issues and also get a response from people they want to co-opt.
