Home | Sports | CARMICHAEL NEW PLE CHAIRMAN, ‘TOUCH’ OUT

CARMICHAEL NEW PLE CHAIRMAN, ‘TOUCH’ OUT

20/09/2020 06:02:00 BY CHRIS DLAMINI

Font size:

EZULWINI – Peter ‘Touch’ Magagula has been dethroned as the Premier League of Eswatini (PLE) chairman.

The much-anticipated PLE executive elections finally got underway at the Happy Valley Hotel yesterday. The new PLE chairman, Denver Sundowns’ Mark Carmichael, was confirmed as the new man at the helm.

Electoral Officer Noel Mabuza, at 12:49pm, started with the big post, the chairmanship and down to the four executive committee members. The chairman’s position was a two-horse race between Carmichael and Magagula after Manzini Sea Birds’ Sicelo Mkhonta withdrew and only stood for his executive committee seat nomination.

“The chairman’s results are as follows; Touch got 11 votes, Carmichael 15 which makes him the winner. For the executive, we have Tsetla with 15 votes, Rudolph Matsenjwa with 22, Sicelo Mkhonta 11, Juluka 11, Victor Rodrigues 18 and Charles Matsebula with 16.

new chairman

“This means Carmichael is the new chairman while the executive committee consists of Tsetla, Rudolph, Charles and Rodrigues. This concludes my task for the day,” said the electoral officer before calling up the new chairman, Carmichael who then invited his new executive to join him.

The time then was 1:21pm when he handed the microphone over to Carmichael who made his official remarks to the voting 26 member teams’ representatives in the Board of Governors (BoGs). By then, his former chairman, Magagula, had long left the conference room in a sombre mood, understandably so as he took a lot of blows ahead of the elections which had to take place last weekend initially but the annual general assembly (AGM) was postponed due to the COVID-19 two-hour time limit for meetings of people more than 20.

immediate reaction

His immediate reaction when the results were announced, seated next to executive committee losing nominee Juluka Gamedze, was to show a sobbing face, looked lost and as a man trying to digest the whole situation but disappointment and sorrow was written all over his face. He was conspicuously missing at the lunch buffet inside the hotel afterwards.

close one

It was a close one between Carmichael and Magagula but in the end, the rules were simple as stipulated by the electoral officer, to win, it is simple majority and this favoured the former.

“I would like to thank BoGs more than anything. Mine is to thank you all for the second opportunity. I am humbled and very grateful to the clubs for the second chance after I left without informing you last time. This is not my first time so I’ll take the opportunity to also apologise to the teams for last time. It was beyond my control,” he remarked.

He thanked God for this opportunity and further assured that his tenure will be one of transparency, honesty as well as consultation with members. He made it clear that he and his executive committee were faced with an uphill but they would meet and come up with a strategy soon.

expressed his pleasure

Carmichael also expressed his pleasure at having worked with Magagula, Mkhonta and slain PLE Chairman Victor Gamedze, saying he gained a lot of experience from them as seasoned administrators.

He pleaded with everyone to give him and his new executive committee a chance to work.

He finished making his remarks at 1:24pm with the new executive committee behind him. At 1.25pm, the agm was officially closed with a prayer by PLE Chief Operations Officer (COO) Pat Vilakati. Carmichael had unceremoniously stepped down when teams had tasked him to the job soon after Gamedze’s demise two years ago.