12 Jan 2016

Sankoyo Bush Bucks marketing manager, Obusitswe John has assured supporters and football lovers that the team will honour all their remaining games despite lack of funds.

The struggling team is reported to have zero balance in their account and Ngurungu are expected to travel to Gaborone this week to lock horns with premier league giant, Mochudi Centre Chiefs at the National Stadium on Saturday.

John said preparations for the up-coming encounter are at an advanced stage as they have managed to secure transport and liaised with someone in Gaborone to organise accommodation for the team out of generosity.

“It is obvious that we are going to play all our away games despite being financially crippled,” he added.

He dismissed reports that the team is sinking as misleading and aimed to taint the integrity of the team. 

The reports came after the team lost two management officials being the club chairperson and manager who resigned recently due to their personal reasons.

John said the departure of the former team’s chairperson does not mean that Ngurungu were dead as some people claim.

The chairperson resigned from the team last year December and there were reports by some soccer lovers that his departure has affected the running of the team. 

He said the claims are “baseless” and could tarnish the image of the team. 

He said the team is made of players not management and assured supporters that all would be fine as the management is working round the clock to address the situation.

John said the departure of the chairperson does not determine the future of the team because he had been with them for a short period of time. 

“It is only that the out-going chairperson resigned at the time when the team is in serious debts but I could assure our fans that all would be well within the team,” he added.

In addition, he said Ngurungu would still survive as the team has been struggling with finances even before he joined.

However, the management had a meeting with supporters over the weekend to update them about the status of the team. John revealed the meeting went well edespite a low turn up.

He said the supporters were eager to know when the management would call the annual general meeting but John indicated that they have informed them that there is no need to call the meeting as currently their focus is to reassemble the team.

He said without players there is no team. Meanwhile it has been reported that some supporters who attended the meeting insisted that the team should urgently hold the AGM in order to address issues at hand.

They indicated that the management could not keep on co-opting some members to fill the vacant posts without the supporters’ input.

“That is why the team is facing many challenges because we believe that the executive committee should be elected by the supporters not to co-opt people,” said a disgruntled supporter who preferred anonymity.

On another issue, John has revealed that they had a case where one of their players dragged the management to labour office for unlawfully terminating his contract.

He said the player took up the issue with the office because the former chairperson failed to address his case properly and the case favoured the player hence management was charged a huge amount to pay the player.

He believed that the case could have been settled internally. 

The said player did not have a chance to play in the first round and now the team is faced with a challenge to pay him his dues.

For his part, the former chairperson, Dikgosana said the issue of players’ contracts were handled by the team’s manager not him. He admitted that indeed they had a case with one of the players who sought out labour office intervention regarding his termination of contract. 

He said labour office accused management of terminating the player’s contract 24 hours before the transfer window is closed and insisted that the player be paid all his dues including the signing on fee.

Dikgosana said the office clarified that the player’s contract was not terminated properly as the management could have given him notice prior to the termination of contract.

“We appreciated the player’s frustration and it was unfortunate that we did not have funds to pay him his dues amounting to P40 000,” he added.

Ngurungu boys had been relying on financial assistance from the executive committee, grant from the premier league, gate takings and some micro funders.  Ends