Moroka Swallows Football Club find themselves embroiled in a nasty dispute between them and their players, which resulted in the club failing to honour two league fixtures towards the end of last year, against Mamelodi Sundowns and Golden Arrows respectively. It is history that the PSL has subsequently hit the Dube Birds hard in the pocket, with a R1 million fine – although R600 000 of the fine is suspended for 24 months – and six points forfeited from the two games.
This emanates from the club’s players ‘taking no prisoners’ and ‘putting their foot down’, reportedly demanding their unpaid salaries. But there have been two different versions of the account of events depending on who is speaking. The club alleges that the players wanted to be paid their December salaries on the 22nd of December, so that by Christmas, they would have already received their salaries. Assuming this was the bone of contention between the two parties with neither side willing to back down, this should be a request rather than a demand that would see the player going on strike, as it is completely against their contract of engagement with the club, which – according to the club – clearly states that they would be getting their salaries on the last day of the month. So, the players would be misguided and shooting themselves in the foot if they were to make such a demand and go as far as putting their tools down. If this is proved to be true, the players clearly have no leg to stand on and the club’s decision to dismiss them will be unquestionable.
The club’s lawyer, Leruma Thobejane, confirmed this in Soccer Laduma edition 1358, citing, in part, as far as he knows there were no outstanding salaries and everything was above board. He further revealed that the only issue was the players wanting or expecting to be paid in advance. Going through the learned Club representative’s revolving column, one could easily notice the ‘As far as I know’ and draw the conclusion that his version of events couldn’t be seen or interpreted as gospel, lest there was information kept away from him or that he was not aware of. On any legal ground, that statement may not necessarily be true because it is only as far as he knows. At no stage did he categorically dismiss the claim that salaries were owed to the players and, according to him, the only issue was the players expecting to be paid in advance. While we may not know how much each Swallows player earns, no one can really make us believe that the players went on a ‘tools down’ in protest for the club refusing to pay them a few days earlier than their agreed pay date. That would be the craziest demand and action from the players’ point of view.
