Date set for Taekwondo elections

Chris Theko

The Taekwondo Association of Lesotho (LTA) along with the sports mother bodies, Lesotho National Olympic Committee (LNOC) and the Lesotho Sports and Recreation Commission (LSRC) have agreed on a date for the long overdue elective annual general meeting (AGM). 

The AGM which will be followed by the executive committee elections to be held on April 24 2021. 

This was said by the LTA Public Relations Officer Sk’hokhe Molikoe, in an interview with Newsday sport on Tuesday this week that they have finally agreed on a date and a way forward. 

“We have finally decided that it is in the best interest of Taekwondo to set a date for the AGM as soon as possible,” Molikoe said. 

“There have been a lot of back and fourths in the association and hopefully this time around it comes to an end especially after long negotiations with all the stakeholders.”

Since February 2020 when the AGM was to be held and a new committee elected, LTA has been rocked by controversy.

The first attempt was interrupted by the Covid-19 outbreak; the second attempt was a few months later in July 2020 after the LSRC advised the association not to hold the AGM still citing the Covid-19 pandemic which was at the time at its highest. 

Another attempt was in November but that was unsuccessful as some of the taekwondo clubs filed an urgent High Court application seeking an order on November 27, 2020 stopping the LTA from holding the AGM.  The clubs also wanted the court to stop the LTA from inviting to the AGM some clubs that are alleged to be non-members to LTA. 

The court later ruled in favour of the applicants and ordered the LTA re-compile the list of clubs to participate in the elective AGM excluding the said non-member clubs who were considered to have never paid LTA membership fees.

A recent attempt was in Mid-March when the elections were called off at the eleventh hour following an alleged call by the LNOC who were supposed to play host for the polling event. 

The association acting president Nthati Theko told this publication that she received a call on Friday night alerting her that the elections could not proceed because the venue which is the LNOC boardroom was no longer available.    

Moshoeshoe Molapo was the first applicant while to Khubetsoana Taekwondo club, Mashali Phasumane and Kabelo Mokhotho of Maseru Day Taekwondo club were cited as second and third applicants respectively. 

For his part Molapo who is the former LAT president said he was happy with how the mediators (LNOC and LSRC) solved the issues and the solutions that were provided. 

“As one of the applicants, I am very happy with the manner the issue was handled and the outcomes hence we will indeed be going for the elections” Molapo said.

Molapo also confirmed that he will be contesting for the position of the president in the upcoming elections.   

Molikoe explained that during the meetings it was discovered that the issue was with the clubs which ruled out by the courts to not be eligible to participate in the elections. 

“We negotiated that the seven clubs which were ruled ineligible by the courts to not be included anymore as it seemed that was an issue,” he said. 

Unfortunately, we saw them to be eligible but the other members were not happy with their participation in the AGM so they won’t be there anymore. They are not happy and I understand their disappointment because they have been supporting all LTA activities and now they cannot take part in the elections process, it can’t be nice”.