Merryman Kunene soccer In South Africa, where football players are among the biggest role models for youngsters, it is gratifying to meet players or former stars like Mike Mangena, Marks Maponyane and Gary Bailey who, long after their playing days are over, are still able to sustain a superstar lifestyle.
However, the more frequent reality is that professional soccer in South Africa has not been able to provide the financial rewards to players associated with this high- profile sport. Not all soccer bosses have bene-fited either, when one looks at the likes of Petros Molemela (Bloemfontein Celtic), David Chabeli (Swallows) and Mike Mokoena (Free State Stars), who have all lost a lot of money in football. Still, the biggest casualties are the players. It is for this reason that the formation of the South African Players’ Union became imperative. “A players’ union in this country is long overdue,” said Mangena. “In the past people thought the union would destroy teams yet I think it could help both the clubs and players.” Players are battling with poor salaries, late payments, lack of insurance for injuries and retirement benefits and general poor practices by bosses. Most clubs still refuse to allow their players to join the union, says its general secretary, Cappy Matutoane. At the moment the biggest challenge facing the union is getting recognition from the teams, who are the employers. While some teams like Chiefs, Sundowns, Supersport and Ajax have reluctantly agreed to recognise the union, others like Swallows, Pirates and Cosmos have had to be compelled by law in a case at the Council for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration against them. “We have over 400 registered members in the Premier Soccer League [the league has just over 600 players] and the judgement against Swallows and Pirates should make teams realise that the union is here to stay and will be fighting for our members,” said Matutoane.
Considering that Jomo Sono, the owner of Cosmos, fought the exploitation of players while at Pirates, it is shocking that only two Cosmos players have joined the union. Labour union experts say it is a clear sign that players from that team are intimidated by their boss. Sono has also been at the forefront of a seemingly illegal practice of loaning players overseas with a provision that he retains the player’s clearance at the end of the contract. This is the sort of arrangement that put Jerry Sikhosana in China with a team that would not pay him his signing-on fee. To his surprise, on returning to South Africa he found he could not sign for any other team without a clearance from Orlando Pirates, the team that had “sold” him to the Chinese side. “In South Africa, some teams have a terrible tendency of loaning players to other teams without the knowledge or approval of the player. At times they are sold outright without even being told,” says Matutoane. South African soccer is littered with stories of club malpractices. Take the case of Ian Gorowa, the Zimbabwean who played for Cape Town Spurs. Gorowa was injured in a game and doctors declared him unable to play football again. Spurs responded by slashing his salary in half, and when he could not afford to pay for his flat in Cape Town he was evicted. Since he was a foreigner he could not get a permit to stay long enough to fight his case. He is now a struggling has-been in Harare, living a desperate life. The worst action, however, was that of African Wanderers owner Vusi Mkhize, who sacked the entire team during the 1999-2000 off-season to avoid paying salaries. The irony is that as some of the players declared they were leaving anyway, he asked for hefty transfer fees for them. The union had to intervene and Mkhize backed down. South Africa must have one of the few professional leagues that rarely allows players a benefit match. Over the past 20 years, there have been just three benefit matches – one for Ace Ntsoelongoe and Jomo Sono (1983) and two for Neil Tovey (1998) – and yet there have been some players like Nick Seshweni (Pirates), Teenage Dladla, Ryder Mofokeng, Ntsie Maphike (Chiefs) and Peter Gordon (Wits) whose long service should have merited a benefit match. The memory of Seshweni, who died last year and got a pauper’s funeral, will linger among soccer fans for years to come. Here was a man who left a high-riding Witbank Aces to join Pirates, a team riddled with squabbles that had just cheated relegation by one point. Seshweni time and again pleaded with his team-mates to give the Pirates’ management a chance when they defaulted on salaries. “Bazooka” led the Buccaneers to their first National Soccer League title, which became the cornerstone of the Buccaneers’ successes. He was later discarded by the team.
“It is a pity that a majority of players from my era are struggling,” lamented Mangena. “Most of them live from hand to mouth.”
Mangena says there are those who made some money from the game and squandered it, yet he still feels conditions are such that the profession will produce more Seshwenis. The PSL, through its new CEO, Robin Petersen, has promised to look into the issue as a matter of urgency. Meanwhile, the union has adopted a very tough stance against teams who refuse to recognise it. As the union has the backing of the Congress of South African Trade Unions and other alliances with overseas unions, South African teams will find it increasingly difficult to ignore the will of players.