Extension Gunners Chairman Phenyo Gothaang has come under fire from members of his committee who resigned recently over his leadership style.
The aggrieved committee members explained that they resigned because Gothaang failed to deliver on a number of promises.
Former Vice Chairman, Cassim Dada, who is among aggrieved committee members said he resigned after attending only two meetings since they were elected into office because of work commitments.
He did not rule out allegations that his resignation also had to do with Gothaang’s failure to deliver on his promises. “The gunners chairman made empty promises to the Gunners community. There was talk of two million Pula sponsorship which was supposed to be launched last year December and nothing has materialized thus far,” he said.
Dada believes that Gothaang will never deliver on his promises. “I don’t see any progress in as far as the Chairman’s promises are concerned. Honestly I don’t see anything materializing soon and the season is going to end with nothing on the table,” said Dada. He also cast aspersions on the administrative skills of his former Chairman saying “administratively he is poor and I don’t see anything bearing fruit under the current executive committee.”
Former Gunners President Alex Massie said he resigned because he wanted to protect his professional integrity. “I resigned because I wanted to protect my integrity and the chairman was doing things alone,” Massie said. He added “he once told me that he is the one running Gunners. Hence I resigned because there can never be two centres of authority.”
Massie observed that it is almost eight months since the chairman promised the team sponsorship and “the much talked about sponsorship is yet to be secured.” Massie is pessimistic that the chairman will deliver on his promises before the end of this season. The former president said twice he met the investor whom the chairman said was willing to invest his money on the team. “He was introduced to me and he told us that he owned one of the local churches,” explained Massie. He said following their meeting with the proposed investor they flighted an advert in local newspapers inviting expressions of interest to invest in Gunners. The investor, one Bheki Thwala, was the only man who expressed his interest.
Extension Gunners was last December expected to launch the P2 million sponsorship. Gunners then re-scheduled the launch to 20th March on the day the team was scheduled to play Township Rollers. Once again the sponsor could not be launched on the day. Massie told Sunday Standard Sportsthat among other things he was unhappy that money raised from gate-takings during the match between Gunners and Rollers was not deposited into the club’s bank account. “We have agreed that all the time money from the gate-takings should be taken to the bank but it did not happen. We had also agreed that some of our creditors like Oupa Kowa and others would be paid from that money. I was surprised that the money was not deposited into the team’s bank account and the people we owed were never paid,” said Massie.
Contacted for a comment, Gothaang dismissed all those who resigned as failures adding that they lack professional ethics. He said they only want to be associated with Gunners “when there is money and when there is no money they run away.”
Gothaang told Sunday Standard Sports that he could not be blamed for lack of sponsors because he is not the one determining whether companies should sponsor Gunners or not. “I proposed sponsorship and it is up to the boards or management of companies we have approached to make business decisions after satisfying themselves that the partnership will be a viable one,” explained Gothaang. On the money that was not deposited into the club’s bank account, he said “we were two days late without paying the players and we could not deposit the money when the players had to be paid. We took the money and paid the players.” Gothaang maintains that those who resigned do not have the interest of players at heart. He said they “should be concerned about the players’ welfare rather than running away.”
