Former Moroka Swallows coach Steve Komphela discussed various behind-the-scenes issues he encountered at the club, speaking to the South African local media.
Komphela had joined the Dube Birds before the start of the season to much fanfare and optimism, but his stay didn't last long as the former Kaizer Chiefs mentor officially left the club on Monday.
Now after leaving Swallows, Komphela is free to speak openly about the problems he had faced at Swallows.
The Curious Case of Mounami
He first touched on a player named Roland Sanou, otherwise known as "Mounami", that the club wanted to bring in from Burkina Faso through Cape Town City but eventually there was a problem because, Komphela alleges that manager Elasto Kapowezha had improperly registered him.
“There’s a boy we had from Cape Town City, we called him Mounami (Roland Sanou), he is from Burkina Faso. Eric (Tinkler) spoke to me about him, he said 'look at this midfielder, I want us to take (Brice) Ambina abroad', but there were issues,” Komphela told Marawa Sports Worldwide.
“So, there were issues and they couldn’t take Ambina abroad, so we agreed to let him (Mounami) come to us on loan and we asked Elasto to register him as a new foreign player.
“We had played all the (first round) matches and couldn’t register him so I asked Elasto did you register the player because it had been postponed.
“He said to me, ‘no, coach I tried to register him but there was a mistake and I asked what mistake, he said the letterhead we had was Swallows FC and not Moroka Swallows.
“Listen, that player had not been registered because he had been improperly registered by a guy who knows full well this is Moroka Swallows and Swallows FC. But who will get fired for that?"
Interestingly, the 21-year-old Burkinabe remained with the Dube Birds and played in their 1-0 loss to Polokwane City in last weekend’s DStv Premiership clash.
According to the rules of the Premier Soccer League, a total of three points are deducted if a club is found to have fielded an improperly registered player.
Provided Rise and Shine and other teams in the league launch a dispute to the league’s dispute resolution committee, Swallows could face hefty penalties. This already comes after failing to honour two fixtures in December against Mamelodi Sundowns and Golden Arrows.
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Komphela On How He Was Not Behind The Swallows Strike
Also in the media this week, Komphela had refuted rumours that he was central to the Swallows player strike.
The strike was costly as 3-0 wins were awarded to the aforementioned sides whilst the Dube Birds got fined R1 million with R600 000 suspended and R400 000 payable.
“That was unfortunate (on leading the strike). That would be another Steve, I don’t know and maybe I would go back and say… the SuperSport match we played which is where things started getting tight,” Komphela told Sports Night Amplified with Andile.
“I had to intervene and I had no business talking to authorities. I’m a coach, you can imagine if you move now from a technical department into administrative level and now you are interacting with the executives,” he added.
Komphela believes that for any coach there’s a way to engage management and confirms he intervened at the eleventh hour to urge the players not to abandon their match with SuperSport United in mid-December.
“There is a way to interact with them not when there’s an impasse, I’ll just give you a brief indication and if I’m lying, they must just phone in and say you are lying. When we played SuperSport I had to get about six players, go ask (Ditheko) Mothoto, go ask (Musa) Nyatama. I’m the one who pressed and said guys we can’t put the game into disrepute like this, we have to honour the fixture.
“I tried my utmost, ask Bra Sipho (Xulu, CEO), he was even saying to me; ‘hey coach you helped us here, you saved us’. Now all of a sudden it is me,” Komphela said. “I’m not that kind of a person, I’ll be the first one in fact to say to the players you have a duty and responsibility to do that but as soon as commitments were made and were not met, where am I?
“Now if you are a coach and there’s no communication from anyone coming what do you do, what do you do?” he stated.
Kapowezha Defends His Record at the Birds
However, Kapowezha has since hit back at some of Komphela’s claims that were expressed in the media.
“Who I’m now and where I have been – the experiences one have acquired over the years and I listen to things like taking a pre-match meal into a gym, I’m like 'wow' for me that was far-fetched,” Kapowezha told Sports Night Amplified with Andile.
“Never in any way would a professional person of Elasto Kapowezha do such things. I think when coach Steve came, we knew where he was coming from and entering the environment of Moroka Swallows wasn’t going to be easy for him. One had to get used to him, he is a coach with certain preferences.
“I’ve worked with so many coaches, like Dylan Kerr, Ernst Middendorp, Brandon Truter, I can tell you never have I had such kind of complaints,” he added.
Kapowezha went on to defend himself and his record in South African football.
“It’s like a flight in itself, I just feel that if a flight is delayed, I think coach Steve will lament the fact that I’m the one who caused the flight to be delayed,” Kapowezha said.
“I feel he is out there to just assassinate my character because Moroka Swallows is not Elasto Kapowezha, I mean you just said to me some people don’t know who is this Elasto Kapowezha and I’m happy that’s the case because I played football myself and I’ve never been involved in any scandals,” he added.
Komphela joined the Dube Birds at the start of the season after a successful spell at Sundowns where he had enjoyed the position of co-coach. The former Bafana Bafana player wasn’t on the bench in Swallows' loss to Polokwane City before the club confirmed his departure on Monday.
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