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Home / Robbing Peter to pay Paul… are Tigers perhaps biting off more than they can chew?
Robbing Peter to pay Paul… are Tigers perhaps biting off more than they can chew?
2016-07-01Staff Report 2 The recent success of MTC Premiership champions Tigers Football Club is a clear demonstration of what good leadership can yield. However, a quick glance at the overall strength and composition of the club’s playing personnel does certainly not inspire much confidence in terms of quality and success. Ingwe surprised friend and foe, including its usually hard-to-please supporters, by winning the elusive MTC Premiership title hands down. Club management responded swiftly by rewarding their players in the most dignified fashion. Team captain Abes Iimbondi was the proud recipient of a brand-new polo sedan, while multiple title-winning coach Brian Isaacs also walked away with a set of wheels. While one must comment and wholeheartedly applaud this kind gesture by the country’s oldest football entity – it quickly took me back to same scenarios that unfolded in the past. Ramblers, Civics, Blue Waters, Orlando Pirates, Eleven Arrows, African Stars and Black Africa at some point were chief beneficiaries of this kind of enticing incentives apart from vehicles. The abovementioned clubs were funded by local business moguls with deep pockets but alas, as soon as their pockets emptied – the new owners hastily opted out, heeding the old saying that if you cant’s stand the heat in the kitchen, please just get out. So, my concern and probably a legitimate one is the issue of sustainability. Tigers have certainly raised the bar and there is no way they can lower it, lest we forget the old adage “don’t bite off more than one can chew”. Don’t do unto others what you would not want to be done unto you The suspension of MTC Premiership (NPL) Financial Manager, one Ivan Tsabalala, stinks of nepotism, inhuman practice and hypocrisy, to say the least, and needs to be interrogated as a matter of public interest. Not so long ago, NFA long serving Secretary General Barry Rukoro almost suffered a similar fate at the hands of the trigger-happy NFA President Frans Mbidi. Rukoro was summarily sent home for yet to be substantiated or rather clarified charges of misconduct. Rukoro’s suspension was deemed unreasonable or more precisely, draconic, with many including the author castigating and peppering Mbidi’s modus operandi. Dear readers, please pardon my ignorance, if my memory serves me right, charismatic NPL Chairman Johnny ‘JJD’ Doeseb joined the chorus of discontent, advocating and rightly so, for the immediate reinstatement of the grounded Rukoro. Now, this is what’s called hypocritical practices. In any kind of proper structures, one cannot have two different sets of rules since what’s good for the goose must also be good for the gander unless some people have a different interpretation of justice. From what yours truly could gather, the calculated Tshabalala, a usually mild mannered and well-spoken dude, apparently has taken French leave (AWOL). Well, as much as I’ve sympathy with the grounded office administrator, who claims to have duly informed his superiors about his dilemma as to why he did not report for duty over a period of two weeks, it should be noted that any application is subject to approval. Nevertheless, this is a man with family and other responsibilities such as rent, school fees, food, etc. to take care of. In all honesty, measuring the severity of conditions attached to the draconian suspension against the offence committed – common sense and humanity would suggest it does not warrant such drastic measures. Remember, justice delayed is justice denied!!!. Suspending a person without pay is like bringing that person’s livelihood to a premature halt and could trigger undesirable catastrophic consequences. I rest my case. 2016-07-01Staff Report 2
