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MANZ WANDERERS’ ‘STAY AWAY’ ENDS

05/12/2019 08:48:00 Chris Dlamini

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MBABANE – They returned to training yesterday for the first time this week since their last match over past the weekend.

Wanderers had travelled to Big Bend last Saturday to play Mhlume Peacemakers where they lost 0-2 before their players gave management a two-day ultimatum to pay their salaries or they go on strike. The players did not train on Monday and Tuesday as reported by this publication yesterday, with their yet-to-be-paid November salaries cited as the main reason. The hub giants needed a cash advance from the Premier League of Eswatini (PLE) to pay for October salaries. They were given E100 000 which they used to pay their players and technical bench but it was half pay for all. Impeccable sources said the club had a budget of E180 000 to pay salaries in full, which means that at the moment, they owe the players half of October and then last month’s salaries.

Loose

“We’re meeting the players just now and then we’ll have a press briefing tomorrow (today). Nothing will come out of the meeting tonight for the public as we still have some loose ends to tie up,” explained the club’s CEO, Sandile ‘Ntofo’ Dlamini. He said they would not have their training due to the bad weather but were due to address the players who assembled at their training arena, the Trade Fair Ground, along with their Management Committee (MC) officials including the team’s Chairman in lawyer Bongani ‘Bhanyaza’ Mdluli. Mdluli was also sought for comment on the latest.

“Our players are back at training, only that it’s raining. As management, we will address them but for now it’s very difficult to say much but something is being done to handle the situation,” Mdluli responded. “It’s an internal address after which tomorrow (today) we will call a press conference to release a full statement,” Mdluli explained when pressed on revealing what they had to share with the players to return to training. However, it was established from close sources that the club was hopeful to solicit funds before end of the week but until that happened, they were cautious on media statements regarding the salaries issue.