A senior legal expert has cast doubt on the viability of an attempt to attach shares allegedly owned by Kaizer Chiefs Football Manager Bobby Motaung, warning that verifying such ownership in a private company could prove nearly impossible.
Kabelo Mashigo of Kabelo Mashigo Attorneys, an expert in commercial and corporate law, told Soccer Laduma that it would be difficult for any creditor to succeed in such a claim without clear proof of shareholding.
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“It’s hard to get information on shareholding in private companies, especially when they don’t want people to know who holds shares. To make it more complicated, the shares might even be held in a family trust. I don’t know the structure there, but from my experience it is unlikely that the creditor will have access to any of the Chiefs shares,” Mashigo explained to the Siya crew.
The comments come in the wake of an alleged legal bid lodged at the Johannesburg High Court, reportedly by a company attempting to recover a longstanding debt from Bobby Motaung by applying to attach his alleged stake in Kaizer Chiefs – one of South African football’s most iconic clubs. The matter was reported by Sunday World on 25 May.
Insiders familiar with Chiefs’ ownership structure have suggested that the application is flawed from the outset.
“The only Motaung who has shares at the club is Kaizer Snr, Bobby's father. Not one of the children owns shares. So, whatever, it won’t make sense to say you are attaching his shares at Kaizer Chiefs. That’s not doable. It's practically impossible because he doesn’t own any shares at the club. So, whatever is happening between him, and the other company is between the two of them and does not involve the team,” the insider told Soccer Laduma.
A second source reiterated that Motaung’s involvement with the club is professional, not financial.
“Bobby (Motaung) is a businessman. He runs his own companies outside football. Yes, it could be that he is the team’s football manager but that doesn’t mean that he has shares at the club. So, it's believed that whatever is happening outside football and Kaizer Chiefs is Bobby’s business and has nothing to do with Kaizer Chiefs because apparently, he doesn’t own shares in the club,” the second source revealed.
Mashigo’s legal analysis suggests that even if the creditor believes there is a financial connection between Motaung and Chiefs, enforcing that claim through share attachment may be a legal complication – or at best, a strategy to apply public pressure in a high-profile case.
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With the legal matter now in the public domain, what initially seemed like a direct route to recover debt has evolved into a legal standoff – one that underlines the complexity of navigating private company structures and public football personalities.
As the situation unfolds, the key question remains: was this a case of mistaken ownership, or a tactical manoeuvre in a broader legal battle?
