SIMANGA REJECTS PLE OFFER

MBABANE – They must pay him within the next 13 days or face a writ of execution.

That is the legal battle between the Premier League of Eswatini (PLE) and their former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Simanga Nhleko, which has reportedly taken a new twist. 

Apparently, the proposal that was allegedly turned down by Nhleko’s legal team was that he would be paid a third (about 33 per cent) of the money owed to him upfront with the rest paid in monthly grace periods. 

Proposal

This means that had he accepted the proposal said to have been initially tabled by the previous executive committee led by Peter ‘Touch’ Magagula, he would have received an up payment of slightly over E220 000.

This is after it emerged that Nhleko had allegedly rejected a proposed payment formulae from the PLE, which was to be done and completed within 12 months. Classified information gathered by this newspaper revealed that the PLE must honour their payment obligations to Nhleko as ruled by the Industrial Court, by the end of this month (November 30, 2020).

The organisation was ordered to pay the former elite league and FIFA accredited referee E670 000 for breach of contract. 

Initially, PLE Chairman Mark Carmichael had confirmed that they were working around putting this issue behind them after engaging Nhleko with the intention to reach an agreement over his payment. 

Deadlock

It has since been gathered that the wheels have now come off in as far as the negotiations between the two parties are concerned. Our impeccable PLE sources revealed that the deadlock in the talks with Nhleko have been necessitated by the fact that the executive committee members are allegedly divided on how to handle the matter.

“Some are of the view that Nhleko be paid his dues and then engage him again in a new contract to assume the same CEO position. However, there are some individuals who are against this move and want Nhleko to be paid his money without being reinstated. This is what is causing the deadlock in the talks and the position now is that the PLE have to pay what is owed to him by the end of this month or face a writ of execution being preferred against the organisation. This could result in attachment to recover Nhleko money and this is likely to happen if the PLE does not honour the payment within the next 14 days (as of yesterday),” our highly-placed sources revealed. 

 “Simanga wants to be paid his money in full and the challenge is that the PLE has no money in their coffers. As it is, there is possibility that his legal team could seek writ of execution in the event such payment is not made by the end of this month,” our trusted source confided. 

reiterated

PLE Chief Operations Officer (COO) Pat Vilakati was contacted and he reiterated that Nhleko’s issue was addressed over the weekend during a media briefing after their special meeting at the Happy Valley Hotel in Ezulwini. 

“The media was informed that issues pertaining to the former CEOs of the organisation are now being discussed out of court with the relevant parties with the aim of reaching agreement on their payment. We cannot disclose the nitty gritties of what is being discussed because of employer and employee confidentiality,” Vilakati stated. Nhleko was also contacted but he referred inquiries to his lawyer who could not be reached at the time of compiling this report. Besides the Nhleko issue, the PLE was also battling an almost similar matter with former CEO Zwelonke ‘Sport’ Dlamini and the organisation asserted that they had reached an out-of-court settlement with Dlamini.           

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