FANS DISRUPT MEETING

MBABANE – It seems as if the challenges faced by Mbabane Swallows are far from over.

This follows that the red and white capital city giants’ supporters disturbed a meeting which was called by the National Supporters Committee (NSC) chaired by Mboni Dludlu on Sunday evening at the club’s offices at Mbabane Industrial Site. A group of over 30 supporters disrupted the meeting that was called by the NSC as they demanded answers on several issues that are affecting the running of the club. Mbabane Swallows players downed tools 11 days ago and they have not returned to training ever since. This is over unpaid salaries and lack of fuel to take them to and from training, among others issues.

kick-off

Mbabane Swallows are expected to kick off the season against Young Buffaloes on October 2 at King Sobhuza II Memorial Stadium in the MTN Premier League. Swallows President Archbishop Bheki Lukhele has not been visible in the club since the end of last season and the team is struggling financially, with a co-director from South Africa expected to arrive this week to finalise negotiations of taking over and assisting Lukhele in running the club. “It is no secret that Swallows are in the process of securing a director that will assist Lukhele,” said a source. Dludlu said after visiting the three branches, their next stop was the Mbabane branch, but this meeting did not see the end of it as supporters disrupted its progress. “On Sunday, we visited the Mbabane branch wherein a number of issues were raised pertaining to the running of the team and the term of office for the current NSC. A few supporters exhibited an unruly behaviour and disrupted the progress of the meeting,” Dludlu said.

He said the concerns raised by the supporters were that the team was not training and according to them there was no Mbabane Swallows. “The supporters felt that before we can engage them on reviving the branches, we must first revive the team,” he said. Swallows General Manager (GM) Sandile ‘Beyond 2000’ Zwane could not be reached for comment as his phone rang unanswered and did not respond to WhatsApp messages sent to him at 4:41pm.

training

Some of the players said there had been no update concerning when they were going to resume training. They said they were currently training on their own and they would wait for the team to address them on the current situation. A source close to the matter said the club was likely to lose some of its players as they were being approached by other teams. They have already lost midfielder Njabulo ‘D4D’ Ndlovu, who signed with Green Mamba. Meanwhile, Dludlu said they took the supporters’ concerns and they would take them to the Management Committee (MC) and they shall be advised on the way forward. He then said they would be visiting the Nhlangano and Hlatikhulu branches this coming weekend.

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