Leemisa Thuseho

FETANG Selialia yesterday retained his Federation of Lesotho Rugby (FLR) president post during the organisation’s elections at Setsoto Stadium in Maseru.

Selialia will lead the for the next four years after beating the outgoing vice president, Letsielo Mabitle and former vice president Moleleki Moleleki in the elections.

Selialia polled nine votes overall edging Mabitle who got seven votes. Moleleki was completely outmanoeuvred and failed to poll a single vote.

Selialia was first appointed into the president position in 2014 after the federation’s founding president Dan Alyward stepped down leaving the country for his home country – England.

Selialia deputised Alyward, who was appointed the first FLR on its formation in 2012. He was officially elected into office in January 2017 during the federation’s debut constitutional elections.

The outgoing committee vice secretary Ntsane Mahlatsi is the new vice president after running unchallenged.

Current national 15- aside coach, Realeboga Segoete is the new treasurer after beating Motlatsi Mohlomi with nine votes to six. Paul Mari will be player representative in the executive committee while Morapeli Motaung, Palesa Pitso, Setumo Monikazi are additional members.

Public relations officer will be appointed by the committee from the elected additional members

Litšitso Motšeremeli retained his secretary post after the federation resolved that the position would no longer be a political one. Appointments will therefore be made after his departure. However, the deputy secretary post remains political and will be held by Khauhelo Raphepheng, who ran unopposed.

The women’s representative is Kananelo Mokhachane, who was also unchallenged.

The elections saw Roma Kings being denied a chance to vote after it was discovered that the side is currently just an associate member and therefore did not have voting privileges.

On behalf of the outgoing committee, Mabitle wished the incoming committee the best of luck and emphasised that they have a huge task at hand.

“We want to advise the new committee to work hard and avoid corruption as we want the sport to grow and be played all over the country. We want to see unity in the committee,” Mabitle said.

Selialia promised the rugby fraternity that his committee would work with all rugby structures including those in opposition camps during the just ended elections.

“We are going to work with everyone. Even those who opposed us during the elections must know that the time for politics has ended, now we want to work for the sport,” Selialia said.

He also promised that the newly elected committee would not occupy positions for the sake of it but would have a major task of building a national rugby centre.

“We want to have a rugby centre and we believe in the next four years; we can achieve that. We are going to work as a team and not as individuals.”

He said he was happy with the work of the previous committee, which he said had achieved a lot in developing the sport.

“We however, still need to work and improve our administration in all our structures,” Selialia said.