Publications
Partners
The new Moroka Swallows leadership had to hit the ground running this week.
A week after the sudden resignation of CEO Leon Prins, the club has had to come up with a survival kit to rescue itself from its downward spiral.
After 15 years in charge of the Dube Birds, Prins left the once-powerful team in disarray. They were relegated to the National First Division, faced two disciplinary cases at the PSL, have had to deal with the nonpayment of players and staff, and had their phone lines cut by Telkom this week.
Under Prins’ leadership, Swallows went from bad to worse and the future now looks bleak for one of the country’s oldest clubs.
Newly appointed chairperson Charles Makhubu is confident they will be able to turn things around. He says they have been in a similar situation before.
“The only difference is that we weren’t relegated, even though things were bad for us in the early 2000s. We had no money and parted ways with Ellis Park – but managed to survive. We will survive,” said Makhubu, who is one of the minority shareholders. Other minority shareholders are Godfrey Gxowa, Solomon Thela, Themba Kwaza and Sam Maja.
Makhubu said they had already approached potential funders who were willing to come to the club’s rescue.
“Most of them were ready to come on board but only if Leon was no longer there – so we have gone back to them. Already we are in the process of securing a bus for the team and are confident of getting funders as well,” said Makhubu.
He said their priority was to get things back in order on the field. Swallows are lying precariously, at third from the bottom of the log, with only two victories in nine matches.
“Our pressing issue is to deal with players’ salaries so they can start winning games. They must go and play with a positive mind-set, with no doubts.”
He said they would sit down with the coach, Ian Gorowa, to find out what was needed to turn things around.
“We will offer him a contract, as he has been working without one. We are also going to beef up the technical team.”
Makhubu said that after three directors quit in a huff last week, the team was not operating according to the rules of the league.
He said Swallows were not complying, as there were only two board members left (Sipho Xulu and Bennett Mtshali). Efforts to get hold of Xulu and Mtshali were unsuccessful.
“We are going to sit with the two remaining members and see if they share our vision, as they were working for Leon and must start working for the club now.”
Swallows were this week charged for failing to provide adequate security for the abandoned fixture against Santos last week. They also have an outstanding case of bringing the Premier Soccer League into disrepute for alleged match-fixing after they applied for an urgent interdict – for the promotion play-offs to be stopped – but lost.
But Makhubu said he successfully asked for a postponement of the case regarding Santos as well as more information regarding the alleged match-fixing case.
He said they were going to pursue the issue of the majority shareholders, as they were still in the dark as to who really owned the club.
“Our attorneys are dealing with it, as we want to ascertain who is the majority shareholder. We should have dealt with it once and for all by the end of this month.”
Prins refused to comment, saying he was done with the club.
