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CENTRE CAN NO LONGER HOLD AT BIG THREE TEAMS

11/06/2019 00:25:00 BY Lwazi's Pandora's Boxs

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My dearest readers...

COURT CLERK: My Lord can I call case number: 03/06/2019 heard here at Court A last Tuesday, the state versus security forces teams (Green Mamba, Royal Leopard and Young Buffaloes) with Honourable Judge Lwazi Knowledge Manqoba Dlamini presiding.

The last witness on the witness box when the case was adjourned was accused number three, Mr. Vusimango Dlamini from Young Buffaloes FC. May he continue with his submission.

JUDGE LWAZI: Mr. Vusimango Dlamini please remember you are still under oath. No manga manga business in my court as we saw in Court B, where my colleague Judge Mbutfo Mamba was presiding on the case (before he recused himself and Judge Maseko took over), where one Sipho Shongwe is accused of the murder of businessman and former Mbabane Swallows owner, Victor ‘Maradona’ Gamedze (May his soul repose peacefully) and a witness, Manzini businessman Mike Mamba has been charged with perjury. For the uninitiated, perjury is an offence of wilfully telling an untruth in a court after having taken an oath or affirmation.

Mamba has since been admitted to a E1 500 bail by Mbabane Senior Magistrate Nonhlanhla Dlamini and is expected back in court on July 14. Therefore, tread carefully Mr. Dlamini.

VUSIMANGO DLAMINI (YOUNG BUFFALOES): Your Lordship, as an officer of the state, I have full respect of the law and uphold it at all times. I explained that the charges preferred against my team are based on dishonestly, jealousy and unaccountability. When Mbabane Swallows were dominating – winning a boutique of 11 trophies in three seasons, not one dared talked about security forces teams having an advantage. What has changed now? This is just a waste of time; this matter should have not come to court.

PROSECUTOR (LENHLE NHLANE) (Interjects): My Lord, before the witness proceeds, can we bring to the attention of the court that new evidence has emerged which will require us to parade more witnesses than the three that were initially intended to parade or which we had indicated to the court we would parade.

We have a representative from the task team which was commissioned by the Premier League of Eswatini (PLE) headed by erstwhile Eswatini Football Association (EFA) vice president Mashumi Shongwe, who is ready to make submissions today. May Mashumi Shongwe take the stand.

MASHUMI SHONGWE: My Lord, I am duly authorised by the Premier League of Eswatini (PLE) as per a resolution taken in a meeting of the Board of Governors on April 12, a date synonymous with one-time uprising in the country in 2011, to make a submission in this matter as an interested party.

Let me hasten to add that mentioning the infamous April 12 uprising has nothing to do with this case or my political beliefs or whatsoever, but it was a watershed moment when a task team was elected to look into the security forces issue which does not sit well with a number of civilian teams, who feel they have an advantage over them – on all fronts. Teams duly believe that the recently ended 2018/19 season fully bears testimony to the dominance of these armed forces teams who enjoy government resources as they compete in every sphere.

Young Buffaloes won a ‘Double’ – earning E2.7 million in prize monies; Green Mamba won the league title – earning a cool E1.3 million and Royal Leopard earned the indistinctive name of being ‘Deputy Champions’ for both EswatiniBank Cup and the coveted MTN league.

Yes, Swallows did win the EswatiniTelecom Charity Cup on August 5, but clearly it was the ‘last kick of a dying horse’, so to speak. As events continue to unfold in the ‘Birds’ nest, it is evident, as my favourite novelist, Chinua Achebe in ‘Things fall apart’ rightly coined it, “the centre can no longer hold,”.

The statistics, as you rightly observed in one matter Your Lordship, are like a bikini, what they reveal is suggestive but what they conceal is vital. Speaking of bikinis, it is clear Your Lordship that already we have titbits given the rumblings in the country’s Big Three teams – Manzini Wanderers where Mehluli Nhlengetfwa sekumehlulile as his name suggests; Mbabane Swallows, where the situation right now is akin to watching a drunk trying to circumcise himself – the more it goes on, the messier it gets.

Then of course Mbabane Highlanders have a new boss in the flamboyant Ally Kgomongwe (with a rap star hairdo), who has told everyone who cares to listen that he is not a chancer, as if someone doubted his credentials.
He has made a whole of promises but my Lordship, you and I, know that actions speak louder than words especially in football where you cannot parachute yourself to stardom even if you were an ANC cadre.

JUDGE LWAZI: Heek, heek, heek, heek, Mr. Shongwe I know you have a way with words, arguing with you involves all the elements of wrestling with a greased pig at a Village Fair, but tell this court what is expected of your task team and when are you going to deliver your report? Who is part of your task team?

MASHUMI SHONGWE: My Lord, we are still taking submissions for now but we have been given until June 30 to submit our report to the PLE. I must say we have had some very interesting submissions from the people who have already come before the Committee which will shock a lot of emaswati. We have in our committee, the representatives of all three security forces teams, who are the accused persons in your court, Your Lordship. Accused number one, Vusi Kunene from Green Mamba, Accused number two, Meshack Ntshalintshali from Royal Leopard and Accused number three, Vusimango Dlamini from Young Buffaloes.

Then we have members, Mhlume Peacemakers Sibusiso ‘Scorpion’ Nxumalo, Sipho ‘Tsetla’ Bhembe and Elian Masuku. We will then submit our report to the PLE as soon as we are done. The PLE will then take the matter to the EFA, I presume. But My Lordship, I don’t want to talk much about the EFA, you know we are not the best of friends with those silk-suited souls at Sigwaca House, after they tossed me like a used condom and went on to steal an election in broad-day light. But one day is one day. I will sit on that EFA presidential chair, one day. Mark my words.

JUDGE LWAZI: Kliklikliklikli ... hope does not kill Ntimandze. Who knew that one day, this grandson of Mlonyeni, whose closest thing to law was being friends with some of the top lawyers in the country, would sit on this chair and preside over this serious matter.
I will not recuse myself even if a dearly departed learned friend once said, justice is for sale in this country, I still believe one way or the other politics is bigger than justice.

But we will see what comes out of this. My worry is how can the PLE, in their infinite wisdom, elect the interested parties to probe the very same issue?
How is this possible? This is akin to jackals calling sheep to a meeting where the subject matter is the killing of sheep!
It just doesn’t make sense at all! What are the accused persons, all three of them, expected to say and conclude? Will they say, “yes, we have an advantage vele, let us be thrown out of the mainstream league and go to play in Commissioner’s Cup?,” I see the PLE Chairman Peter ‘Touch’ Magagula is here and also cited in the court papers. Ye-Touch & Go, what is all this madness I see before my eyes?

TOUCH MAGAGULA (PLE CHAIRMAN): To be honest, ayakhala lama-team nkhosiyenkantolo....
JUDGE LWAZI (Interjects): Please speak out louder in English, Mr. Magagula.
TOUCH MAGAGULA (PLE CHAIRMAN): Your Lordship, even though I walk on very shaky grammatical grounds, I will try to explain the situation we find ourselves in. It is not only the teams that are complaining but even the sponsors.

The challenge we are facing is that sponsors are sensitive. Any bad publicity is frowned upon and when the security forces dominate, the attendance in the stadium is poor. We were worried sick nje when the EswatiniBank Cup final was contested by Leopard and Buffaloes. We spent sleepless nights, as we tried to come up with ideas of how to draw people to the stadium. Kwabancono ke nkhosiyenkatolo when the Marketing team yabo-Lindiwe Dolly Lomagugu Shongwe, the drop-dead gorgeous head of Marketing wale-bank, brought in Makoya barrings labatsi ngu DJ Tira to perform.

I don’t know much about DJ Tira, I normally just hear his songs kancane when I am doing my favourite past-time – gambling le-Royal Swazi. I don’t know him but he was able to bring some people into the stadium. Kwangabi bad kakhulu but nje still it was the poorest crowd to ever watch a EswatiniBank Cup final. This is the issue. We have given bo-Mashumi Shongwe this daunting task to come up with recommendations and find a way forward in levelling the playing ground because as PLE we rely on gate-collections, not just fines to survive.

JUDGE LWAZI: But ‘Touch’, I read in the newspapers every-day that your organisation has turned into a piggy-bank for one of the teams, Mbabane Highlanders which I know from my earlier days as a sports journalist who always wore that poor’s man’s cap that it is a team closest to your heart.
Why can’t Highlanders go to Standard Bank where they can ‘move them forward’ or visit First National Bank (FNB) where I am sure they will ask them ‘How can we help you’ or go to Nedbank where they can ‘see money differently’? Who died and made Highlanders special? They get relegated, rules are changed and teams increased to accommodate them? They run out of cash, they go to their piggy-bank at Sigwaca House for a short loan?
What the hell is going on here, ‘Touch’?

TOUCH MAGAGULA (PLE CHAIRMAN): My Lordship, we don’t give teams loans willy-nilly. Actually we stopped the loan scheme after teams failed to pay back the money during the dearly departed Victor Gamedze’s era.
But there are special circumstances and we have to look at the interest of the team and football as a whole.
If Highlanders for instance want a loan of E400 000 and they are guaranteed E550 000 for being runners up in the Ingwenyama Cup, we can advance them because we have mechanism of getting the money back.
People are not honest; we have helped many teams other than Highlanders as long as there is proven mechanism of how we will get the money back.
JUDGE LWAZI: Having listened to the submissions by the accused persons, Task team chairman and PLE chairman, let me state categorically clear that this matter has been allocated only three weeks to be finalised.
However, looking at the submissions, we would have to set an extra week to conclude all submissions. The accused persons are strictly warned not to interfere with the witnesses or anyone connected to this case.
The case will be heard again on Tuesday 18 June here in COURT A.
Case adjourned.
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