SA’S MAJA FOR 20% STAKE AT ‘BIRDS’

EZULWINI – It is almost official - South African businessman Helden Maja has agreed to a 20 per cent shareholding at Mbabane Swallows as co-director.

As exclusively reported by our sister publication on Monday this week, the Beautiful Birds met with Maja in Durban, South Africa (SA) last Thursday evening ahead of the Royal AM and Mbabane Highlanders TotalEnergies CAF Confederation Cup preliminary round second leg clash. He has also met with the red and white outfit in the country. Maja also crossed the border on Wednesday to tie up a few loose ends with Umkhonto KaShaka leadership. “My stay there was brief but it was a very good one. I’m getting 20 per cent stake in the team, while Lukhele will have 80 per cent,”Maja commented. He said he left the country on the same day but was returning again yesterday. “I’m coming back on Friday (yesterday) for the official signing of the contract and then we can turn focus to being ready for the start of the season,” Maja said.

He, interestingly, is a close friend to Highlanders Managing Director (MD) Chief Ally Kgomongwe, who is understood to have arranged a meeting between him and Swallows who were led by their General Manager (GM) Sandile ‘Beyond 2000’ Zwane and Lawyer Welile Mabuza among others management officials. When Maja confirmed his purported stake at Swallows, he was also with Kgomongwe in Pretoria and they both joked about the capital city derby being more exciting this time around as they were home boys. “We’ll put that friendship aside when the derby comes and he’s not going to beat me,” Kgomongwe lightly said. Meanwhile, Maja was expected to yesterday to sign the contract that would also detail what was expected of him and the duration of his commitment.  

“Only the office of the President Archbishop Bheki Lukhele can comment or give us direction on those matters otherwise everything we’re planning is around him. He is the one handling such matters and we will wait for his directive if there’s anything,” Zwane responded when the 20 per cent and contract signing issues were put to him.

He did not deny nor confirm Maja’s stake and his presence in the country yesterday for the contract signing. There was no immediate comment from Lukhele but wondered who was leaking the news to the author. Efforts to get one from his brother and Swallows Governor, Andreas Lukhele also proved futile, as his phone rang unanswered. The team’s president had sanctioned that the management finds someone, a co-director to work with him and it is understood there were two others who could also be given shares but contracts were being arranged.

Spending

Meanwhile, Maja is only back in SA after spending most of his life in Canada with his family, where they are said to run a few businesses. He is said to have also owned a team in the smaller divisions in SA. Locating Maja online, in an effort to learn more about him proved futile. On his return, he is said to have also made some worthy investments in SA. However, the nature of his businesses is yet to be established. Maja joins Swallows after Lukhele asked the team to get him a co-director who would run the team and be hands-on especially because he (Lukhele) was not always present due to his constant travelling.

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