Times Of Swaziland: MASHILE TO PAY OVER E500K WANDERERS SALARIES

MASHILE TO PAY OVER E500K WANDERERS SALARIES
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BY CHRIS DLAMINI on 25/08/2021 08:37:00


MBABANE – Hub giants Manzini Wanderers can heave a sigh of relief as their
South African Director, Cedric Matata Mashile, is committed to leading the club
for the next four years.
It is not long ago that Wanderers’ financial woes were reported as players and
technical staff’s salaries were not paid in May and June. However, Mashile met
with the club management and they were able to settle a month’s bill at the
end of July but then that was a time of yet another salaries pay. So, this month
will make it three months’ pay for the players and technical bench led by
coach Nyanga ‘Crooks’ Hlophe. The team’s wage bill, according to
investigations by this reporter, is E167 000 monthly. Two months of this amount
is E334 000 while a third month takes it to E500 100.
It is understood that Mashile, who was never unveiled to the public by the club,
is aware of the pending bills as he has received the club’s reports for the
past season including budgets running to next season. It had earlier been
established that the club was hunting for a new director in South Africa,
Pretoria but its PRO and Acting Management Committee (MC) Chairman Mlungisi
Ndzinisa dismissed that as untrue. “To be honest, we have a director who
signed five years and he just assured us that he is committed to the five years.
He wants to see the team play in Africa and I must say we can’t then be
looking for a director when he is committed to the club and as management we
believe he’s the best thing to happen to Manzini Wanderers. “He knows of the
challenges we have but there’s also COVID-19 which is affecting business and
he’s assured us that things are getting better for him and he’ll settle
everything. It’s only one or two months that he’s not paid salaries so we
can’t then jump ship when he’s consistently paid over E200 000 for over
eight months,” Ndzinisa explained.
He said they spoke to Mashile and he was confident that he was the right man to
lead the team. “After the death of Mkhatjwa, he also had to find someone else
he could trust but the good news is that he will help us and wants us in Africa.
I can’t even imagine Wanderers without the director because these days you
can’t have someone sacrificing over E200 000 of their family money for eight
months or more, it’s not easy as there’s nothing to play for unless the
knockouts return,” Ndzinisa further explained.
He said they were positive though that the Premier League of Eswatini (PLE) and
Eswatini Football Association (EFA) would find a way to bring back the
Ingwenyama Cup and EswatiniBank Cup in particular so there is something these
directors invest their money for.