Times Of Swaziland: ‘WESLIANS’ E300 000 HEADACHE ‘WESLIANS’ E300 000 HEADACHE ================================================================================ BY PHOLSILE HLOPHE on 06/12/2019 01:21:00 MBABANE – “Running a big team like Manzini Wanderers in not a joke.” It is an open fact that Manzini Wanderers are faced with financial challenges and as a result could not manage to pay players’ salaries for the past month. This was admitted by the club’s head of Management Committee, Bongani ‘Bhanyaza’ Mdluli, yesterday during a press conference that was held at Mountain Inn in Mbabane. Mdluli said the management and elders of the club were working around the clock in finding a long-term solution to their critical financial state, considering the absence of a director after South Africa-based Mehluli Nhlengetfwa left. He, however, admitted that they honestly did not have a long-term solution for now but plans that would help normalise the situation were in place. As revealed by the club Treasurer Girlie Johnson, their monthly expenditure amounts to E300 000, of which E200 000 goes to salaries and E100 000 to the team’s operations. They need E20 000 to run the team per week. salaries “We hope that the salaries issue will be resolved soon. Desperate situations call for desperate measures and we are relying on our supporters, stakeholders and willing individuals to help us maintain the club. Running a big team like Manzini Wanderers is not a joke and we need a lot of money to do so,” said Mdluli. While the management works on the directorship issue, Mdluli appealed to the club’s fans and supporters for assistance in raising funds that would facilitate the team’s operations and further highlighted that the current situation called for unity instead of pointing fingers. He also revealed that the management had a meeting with the players on Tuesday following an alleged training boycott due to the non-payment of salaries and it was then that the players declared their commitment and love for the team. following “Manzini Wanderers has a huge following of about 12 000 fans and supporters. If we all join hands in raising funds through donations and the sale of our team’s replicas, I believe that we can break free from this dilemma and run the team smoothly. This was a wake-up call for us and it is time to come up with solutions instead of pointing fingers at each other. We have no clue of how we landed in this situation but whatever happens should not be at the expense of our club’s name,” said Mdluli. He further encouraged supporters to continue making their donations into their MTN Mobile Money (MoMo) account whose number is 7618 0068 and their First National Bank Account number 6279 6799 397.