By Tumelo Maseka
MASERU
With the aim of reinforcing Women’s National Team – Mehalalitoe technical staff, Lesotho Football Association (LeFA) has roped in the former Rovers and Sky Battalion Coach Pule Khojane alongside his Assistant Coach Makobo Kepa to take over the reins from Lehloenya Nkhasi.
In a Press Release dated 16 May, LeFA indicated that among other reasons why National Women’s team replaced Nkhasi with Kepa and Khojane as new coaches is because he has been unavailable due to work commitments that hindered him from being with the team full time. Khojane will be acting as a Head Coach and Kepa as assistant Coach for the Senior National Women’s Football.
Kepa is a former coach for Arsenal, Khutsa, Maseru Celtic, Vosloo All Stars (South Africa), Rovers and Kick4Life, and also an integral part of the National Women’s team players. She was part of the Senoir National Team’s first 11 that crushed Namibia 2-1 in 2017 in Zimbabwe during the Council of Southern Africa Football Associations (COSAFA) Women’s Championship.
She holds Sports Administration level 1 and 2 certificates obtained from the Lesotho National Olympic Committee (LNOC) in 2012 and 2014 respectively. In 2015, she was crowned Kick4Life Ladies player of the season and ventured into coaching where he obtained a Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) Grassroots coaching certificate the following year.
In 2018 Kepa acquired Scottish Football Association Level 1 and 2 Licenses before obtaining a FIFA Women’s Football Coaching License.
Despite only retiring in 2020 being given the role of Assistant Coach for Kick4Life Women’s Football Club, she had already obtained a Confederation of African Football (CAF) ‘C’ License obtained from LeFA in 2017, coaching as part of the national team set up in the women’s under 20 and under 17 teams. She has trained as a coaching instructor and attended instructors’ courses in Cameroon and South Africa.
In the same year on her retirement, she obtained a FIFA Member Associations instructors Coaching certificate and a CAF Zonal Women Instructors Certificate in South Africa. She had a total 22 caps with the national team and had put on the Rovers and Kick4Life Ladies armbands for three and four years respectively.