A jubilant former Bafana Bafana team head coach Ephraim ”Shakes” Mashaba said on Friday that he was exhilarated that justice had been done — and was on standby to go to Tunisia.
”This was my main objective when I took over as the coach. I knew well that going to Tunisia will open a lot of avenues for me. Players go to Europe and everywhere in the world to further their careers. The same should happen to coaches.
”But to be snubbed just like this on the eleventh hour was just something else. I will never forgive them. I have not spoken to Safa. I consulted with legal people and letters will be written to them,” he said.
”Irrespective of their appointments I want to go Tunisia. I have no problems with their appointments. Two heads are better than one. But lets wait and see what their response is.”
He made it clear that it had been traumatic to ”me, my family and all the people of South Africa who have supported me through this trying time.”
The Bafana coach saga has turned into a soapie.
Mashaba was first suspended for seven days last week. Safa, his accusers, termed Mashaba’s actions as the ”breach of his contract”.
He took Safa to court on Tuesday to try to get his suspension reversed.
But the case was postponed to Thursday — the last day of his suspension.
Surprisingly, Safa, announced late on Thursday that it had terminated the services of Mashaba and instead appointed Styles Phumo as the caretaker coach.
Phumo and Roger de Sa will be in charge of Bafana during the African Nations Cup tournament in Tunisia. The African soccer showpiece starts late in January. Phumo had always been Mashaba’s assistant.
Mashaba’s legal team indicated on Friday that more papers for a further application against Safa were expected to be filed later in the day.
”We asked them to withdraw the cancellation (of Mashaba’s contract) and they refused,” they said after the ruling on Friday.
Mashaba was appointed head coach in August two years ago, and his contract ends on December 31 2004.
Delivering the ruling, the judge said: ”The shortcomings of this notice is blatantly clear.”
The fixed service contract required Safa to ”notify (Mashaba) in writing” of any facts which could be considered as a contract breach and then provide seven days for rectification.
The court heard that Safa did not inform Mashaba in writing of the facts but merely ”regurgitated clause 5.2 of the contract” which states he should ”identify all necessary player information for the national team”. – Sapa