‘ALL-Y’ IMPORTANT DECISION

MBABANE – “Who are my partners? How much money are they investing?”

It has been quiet since the club announced that its patrons and National Supporters Committee (NSC) had approved that Mbabane Highlanders should be registered as a company as of the 2021/22 domestic football calendar. This follows the club’s South African (SA) Director Chief Ally Kgomongwe proposing that it registers as a company lest he takes his interests elsewhere.

It has come to the attention of this publication that Kgomongwe is concerned about the silence on the issue yet there was a lot that needed to be done in the team as the new season approaches. One of the crucial things was payment of signing-on fees for the players who had their contracts renewed about two weeks ago in Pretoria during a pre-season five-day camp.

Salaries

The retained players were also assured a 20 per cent hike in salaries going into the new season expected to start in two weeks. The Premier League of Eswatini (PLE) had said this week but indications point to the contrary. Kgomongwe has not been in the country since the end of the season and impeccable sources claimed it was the issue of the company registration of the club that was keeping him away.

Furthermore, sources said he was interested in knowing who from the club would be used to register alongside him, especially because there had been not much progress since last month when the proposal was approved. It was reported once that the NSC had recommended one way they could do it, which was using a member from both structures and lease the company to Kgomongwe for as long as he wished to own the company by his own rules and policies.

Unsatisfied

“He has been asking about the company issue but seemingly unsatisfied with the responses yet he must invest more money on players and other things to make the team tick. The director wants to be clear who is joining him in the company and with what investment or if he will go all out alone as he had declared his readiness,” sources close to the SA businessman, who invested over E4 million in the club last season alone claimed.

Over two weeks ago, Kgomongwe was all excited when the decision to register the club as a company was conveyed. He even made it clear that it would be nothing less than E2 million minimum to partner him or to have 25 per cent shares while for double this it means 50 per cent shares with him. “If nobody has that much, then I’m ready to go all out alone,” he had been quoted as saying back then. He was sought on the latest matter alongside the club’s NSC Chairman Kenneth Dlamini and Patrons Secretary Musa Masuku. However, not all of them could respond on the day.

“I’d obviously be interested to know who my partners are and how much money are they investing. I told them my position and they know it then I’ll come down to Eswatini. I’ve already started running the club as a company but I really don’t know yet how far that process of registration is and who I’ll partner and with what. I was informed the patrons didn’t form a quorum last week when they had scheduled a meeting on the matter,” Kgomongwe said. He added that another meeting had been scheduled for this week but he would wait to hear from the patrons what transpired as he wanted to know how the registration would go about.
Getting a comment from the patrons secretary has not been easy in the last few days and yesterday was no different.

Meeting

However, the NSC Chairman Kenneth was available to respond, saying they were anticipating a joint meeting with the patrons soonest over same matter. “This is a big decision that requires a joint meeting,” he said. Meanwhile, Kgomongwe is expected to also join one of the meetings soon as the supporters are said to be ready to do everything they can to ensure they retained their director as opposed to losing him at this stage of tough economic times.

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