OUR MONEY OR NO ELECTIONS – EWFA TEAMS

MBABANE – ‘We won’t vote unless we get our money back is the unanimous voice of the Eswatini Women Football Association member clubs.

This puts the elections billed for this Sunday at Sigwaca House Hall in limbo. The bone of contention, it was established, was the lost and unrecovered E21 000. The sum was reportedly lost while in the possession of Eswatini Women Football Association (EWFA) outgoing Treasurer Xolile Dlamini. Dlamini, along with outgoing President Sonnyboy Mabuza, who is also involved in the money issue, has been nominated for the upcoming elections. However, the clubs have not forgotten about the money which was to benefit each of the 12 member teams for COVID-19 essentials like sanitisers and face masks among other things. It has come out that they have discussed the issue at length in their WhatsApp group and took a resolution. “Fortunately, the elections are the last item on the agenda. We expect to get our money first before casting our votes. What if these people lose the elections then what happens to our money? They should just bring back our money or forget about the elections,” said Callies Happy Girls and Tambankulu Callies Director Sithembiso ‘Ngudze’ Mamba who has been very vocal ahead of the Elective Assembly.

boycott

Mamba said the teams had unanimously agreed through their engagement in their WhatsApp group to boycott the elections if they did not get their money back on Sunday, the eventual day of the assembly. He noted it would be senseless to go ahead with the elections without ironing out the teams’ grievances resulting from the acts of the outgoing executive. He also explained that this would set a bad precedence for the new executive as they would be convinced that they could get away with alleged criminal acts without being held accountable. Meanwhile, Southern Divas Director Mfanzile Vilakati said nothing had been communicated to the teams as yet, but hoped that all would be explained during the assembly.

“It seems like no one is doing a follow-up on the money and unfortunately we don’t know anything because no one is communicating with the teams on the matter. I guess we will get the answers during the meeting,” Vilakati said. Vilakati added that in his 12 years and a member of the EWFA, the money incident was a first-of-its-kind, but preferred not to judge or accuse anyone. He further recalled that the case had been reported at the Mbabane Police Station as confirmed by Chief Police Information and Communications Officer Superintendent Phindile Vilakati (PICO). Shiselweni Divas Director Enos Vilane opposed the boycott of the elections, but urged the suspected members to account for the use of the association’s funds. “Most of the teams said they won’t vote until they get their money, but I am not in agreement with boycotting the elections,” said Vilane. He said boycotting the elections would be an automatic extension of the current executive’s office and he advised the members against this.

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