Times Of Swaziland: A VITAL MARK! A VITAL MARK! ================================================================================ BY LWAZI DLAMINI on 20/09/2020 06:01:00 Sports Editor (At Happy Valley Resort) EZULWINI – The number 14 in biblical terms represents DELIVERANCE. The 14th day of the first month is also defined as the ‘PASSOVER’ and it took just 14 minutes for the Premier League of Eswatini (PLE) Board of Governors members to DELIVER a new chairman for the organisation. The PASSOVER was as smooth and calculated as if the script had been pre-written in iron ink – Voting began at 12:49pm and viola, at 1:03pm, the PLE had a new head honcho. Out went a beleaguered Peter ‘Touch’ Magagula, who was so crest-fallen he left immediately the results were announced by Electoral Officer Noel Mabuza, and in came Mark Carmichael in a tension-filled elective annual general meeting (AGM) here yesterday. A teary-eyed ‘Touch’ Magagula got 11 votes while the Denver Sundowns chairman, Carmichael was on the ‘mark’ with 15 votes which saw him get another second bite on the chairmanship cherry having unceremoniously stepped down after barely seven months in charge following the untimely demise of Victor ‘Maradona’ Gamedze on January 14, 2018. In terms of a proper ‘Passover’, or even a simple hand-shake, there was none, as Magagula left immediately after the results were announced clearly dejected and wondering what might have been. Many others, in particular, at the top echelons of power at Sigwaca House would probably have cried with him as the winds of change sweep through the local football landscape like a obsidian knife through a tuna steak. As the most vocal members of the Board of Governors, Sipho ‘Tsetla’ Bhembe (16 votes) of FC VOVOVO and Charles Matsebula (16 votes) of Pigg’s Peak Black Swallows finally landed their hands on the levers of power they have been yearning for, Tambuti’s Rudolf Matsenjwa (22 votes) and Malanti Chiefs Victor Rodriguez (18 votes) completed the executive committee seats. Madlenya’s Juluka Gamedze and Manzini Sea Birds Sicelo Mkhonta, who both got 11 votes, could not make it. The two vacant positions will be filled with co-opted members who will be decided by the new-look executive committee. As if it were a premonition, the now former chairman, Magagula walked in at the conference room at exactly 10:35am, slowly followed three minutes later by one of the ‘Kingmakers’, Charles Matsebula long after the new chairman, Mark Carmichael, had settled in at his seat as if he knew it was to be his day when he takes over running what is supposed to be the ‘commercial wing’ of our football. encourage good things The opening prayer by Seven Dreams Bishop Bhekibandla Vilakati was poignant as he asked God to encourage good things and discourage bad things during the meeting. The heavens obliged. Other than burning questions on the PLE expenditure by Charles Matsebula purporting of funds being siphoned out of a EswatiniBank call account, the meeting went well – in a whirlwind speed to be able to finish within the stipulated two-hour slot. The financial statements, which reflected that the PLE made a E77 250 surplus, were declared unqualified which was a welcome relief given all the allegations and rumours flying around of mismanagement of funds. Unlike last week’s well-organised chaos, yesterday’s meeting procession was like clock-work. By the time the auditors were done with their financials presentation, everybody was licking their lips in anticipation of the business of the day – the elections - like a bullfrog readying for a mating session! most successful Never mind that it was a ‘quickie session’ – just 14 minutes (and now, dear reader, get your minds out of the gutter) the PLE, two years after the death of its most successful chairman, Victor Gamedze, finally had a man who will lead the organisation for the next four years in Mark Carmichael. Call it a poisoned chalice but Carmichael is no ‘SPECIAL ONE’ ala Jose Mourinho, neither is the ‘NORMAL ONE’ ala his beloved Liverpool’s Jurgen Klopp but call him the ‘CAPABLE ONE’. Indeed, Carmichael was on the MARK – pun intended - yesterday with 15 votes ushering in as the PLE chairman on the same day six years ago Apple iPhone 6 went on sale. Pure deliverance, biblically-speaking!