Notwane FC’s mother body has vowed to seek a new investor if the club’s current executive chairman, Gift Mogapi, continues his self imposed exile from managing the club. News reaching this publication states that the chairman has been away for more than a month while the club’s players are yet to receive their salaries since he took charge of the side four months ago.
A representative of Toronto’s mother body, Kitso Sedisa, told Gazette Sport that they are not in conflict with Mogapi as the latter suggested in various radio interviews last month. The mother body has written a letter through their lawyers to terminate their sale agreement with Mogapi, according to a well-placed source.
“We are not in conflict with Mogapi, our only concern is the players’ welfare. As the mother body we oversee all sports codes associated with Notwane. Mogapi purchased Notwane FC (Pty) LTD, and that gave him control of the football club. He has failed to pay the players their salaries ever since he took over and has been away for a month now,” explained Sedisa.
“It is difficult to keep the players focused while they are also disgruntled. We convinced them to turn up for games against BDF XI and Orapa United, games they had no intentions of participating in. If the situation continues this way then we have to find a new investor. As the mother body we will continue in a caretaker role but we would welcome a new investor,” continued Sedisa.
According to the Notwane elder, the players do not have copies of their contracts which are said to be in Mogapi’s possession. Another source stated that Mogapi is in also possession of the players’ registration books. “He took the players’ contracts and told them that he was going to put stamps on them at the Premier League offices but he has never returned them,” disclosed the source.
Furthermore, the source revealed that Mogapi owes two lodges, namely the Majestic Five and the Big Five lodge, a combined total of P240 000. Both lodges are expected to file court cases against the club as Mogapi has allegedly failed to pay for his players’ accommodation at the respective lodges.
Other reports have indicated that Notwane’s chairman has finally returned the club’s car that he had been in possession of in South Africa. First Sun Alliance Insurance Brokers had donated the car, which he reportedly returned last week Monday.
Gazette Sport has also established that the club’s nearly appointed coach, Simon Ngomane has returned to South Africa amid broken down contract talks. He was expected to be the club’s new coach with Kagiso Kobedi as his assistant.
Meanwhile, on Sunday, Sechaba suffered their heaviest defeat of the season. They were beaten 7-1 by Ecco City Greens at the Francistown Stadium. Reliable sources have revealed that the squad travelled to Francistown on the same day of the defeat; they had left Gaborone on Sunday morning. This meant that the players did not have a day’s rest before the Francistown held clash. According to the sources, only a handful of players attended training on a regular basis last week.