Sunday, February 9, 2025

Summer of discontent rolls on at Rollers as members approach court

Township Rollers summer of discontent seems likely to blight the new season. While the team is still reeling from the Ofentse Nato defaulter saga that has thrown the whole league into disarray, another internal war that is threatening to tear the club’s supporters asunder is brewing. The strife, which is the latest phase in the ongoing marathon battle for the heart and soul of Rollers, sees some disgruntled members applying for the imprisonment of club’s investors for ‘contempt of court.’

Sources close to the team have revealed how disgruntled members, who were the main applicants in the first case, are accusing the investors, through their Township Holdings Company, of continuing to run the affairs contrary to the orders of the High Court. “The applicants in this case, namely Kgaboesele, Allen Compton, Mookodi Seisa and Obonetse Mazola, have lodged a case at the High Court asking for the Township Holdings directors, Mr Jagdish Shah and Mr Somerset Gobuiwang, as well as the team’s Executive Committee to be brought to book for disobeying the court orders. They argue that while the High Court had ordered that Township Holdings should cease running the affairs of the society, it has continued to do as such,” the source revealed. While the club’s top brass has always said the club is now run by the society as per the court orders, the disgruntled members are arguing that this is not the case. To support their case, the applicants are said to have brought forth some bank statements that show that the transactions of the club’s moneys are still being done through the accounts of Township Holdings. Reached for comment, Township Rollers’ Secretary General Khumoyame Masonya confirmed that indeed the club’s investors and committee have been served with court papers. “In their application, the applicants have pleaded with the court to jail the respondents for contempt of court,” the Rollers Secretary General explained. He however said he could not discuss details as the case is now before the court of law. For his part, Gobuiwang, while confirming he had indeed been cited in the case as a respondent, refused to comment on the matter. Gobuiwang said all questions regarding the matter should be directed to his lawyer, Thabiso Mfila, who will be representing him in the said matter.

Source have revealed that while the applicants and the respondents’ legal representatives are slugging it off, battle lines have now also been drawn between the club’s supporters as some pro Shah supporters are angry with the respondents. In one unprecedented move, the pro Shah supporters are said to have written letters to the employers of the supporters who they feel are anti Shah, and who they feel are responsible for taking Shah to court, asking them (employers) to ‘put their employees on a leash.’ Among those whose employers have been served with such letters from supporters are Obonetse, Seisa as well as the club’s former interim Treasurer Mfolo Mfolo. In the letters, the pro Shah supporters are advising the employers to ‘advice their employees to desist from their actions as they are somehow linked to themselves, their families and employers.’

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