Disgruntled Notwane Football Club, through its mother body, Notwane Club has this past Friday filed a court application against club owner GMG Holdings, represented by its Director Kealeboga Gift Mogapi.
The club is seeking to bar Mogapi, through his company GMG Holdings from receiving the broadcast rights money due to be paid to Notwane FC from the Botswana Premier League (BPL) as well as to terminate the agreement which saw GMG Holdings gain the full control of Notwane (PTY) LTD which manages Notwane Football Club.
The latest move came just a day after Gaborone High Court Judge, Justice Leatile Dambe dismissed Notwane FC’s application for the matter to be heard urgently through the courts.
Delivering a judgment on the issue, Justice Dambe pointed out that Notwane FC had in their application not forwarded convincing reasons for the matter to be heard urgently.
She however said ‘the dismissal does not prejudice the applicants from pursuing the matter through normal court processes,’ a process which the Notwane Club mother body has now decided to pursue.
In their dismissed application to the court, Notwane FC had implored the court to look at the case as a matter of urgency to stop the Broadcast rights money from reaching Mogapi, but rather to be safely held by a third party, it be the BPL or the Botswana Football Association (BFA) while the row over the club ownership was being resolved.
The club is also seeking an interdict to part ways with GMG Holdings and Mogapi, whom they accuse of not fulfilling his obligations since taking over the club last year.
The news of the new application was confirmed by Notwane FC legal representative Attorney Kabo Motswagole of Monthe, Marumo and Associates.
According to Motswagole, under the normal process, the application will be sent through to the defendants, in this case, GMG Holdings and its Director, Mogapi, who will have to respond within stipulated dates before anything can be debated in courts.
Quizzed on whether the normal court processes will not affect operations at the club considering that the league is starting, Motswagole said there is little the applicants can do as the Justice Dambe’s ruling found no urgency in the matter.
The time frame for the hearing in the matter, according to Motswagole will now depend on the correspondences between the parties concerned and the courts as well as the schedules of the Judge, something which may take up to three months.
