TZANEEN – Participants in the Greater Giyani Mayor’s Cup tournament are concerned that two months after the event concluded on July 20, they have yet to receive their prizes.
This includes payments for the workers who facilitated the tournament.
“We don’t even have a date for when they will pay us. They are keeping us in the dark by remaining silent on the matter,” said Mfundhisi Thabo Chauke of Giyani Chief FC, a team that was knocked out in the top four stage in the tournament.
“At the very least, they should give us a date when they will pay us so we can follow up accordingly,” he said.
Another person still waiting for payment for work done during the Mayor’s Cup is a sports commentator from Homu 14B, who asked to remain anonymous for fear of victimisation. He said the delay had ruined his plans.
“Do you know how far 14B is? I walked to the stadium from there every day from June until July until the tournament ended. I had hoped to use the payment to cover some of my needs, but nothing has come through even today,” he said.
When asked about the delay in payment, Greater Giyani Municipal spokesperson Steve Mavunda denied that there was a deliberate delay from the municipality’s side. He explained that the delay was due to some participants in the Mayor’s Cup still needing to submit their banking details.
“We are not late with payments. All the clubs were requested to provide their banking details at the end of the tournament, but there has been a delay on their part,” explained Mavunda, saying teams submitted their details individually.
“As a municipality, we cannot process payments one by one, because doing so could raise audit issues. Therefore, we need to make the payments all at once. We have therefore given them a deadline of Friday to submit all their banking details. After that, no payments related to the Mayor’s Cup tournament will be processed,” he added.
However, not everyone accepted Mavunda’s explanation. Some believe that the municipality is using the submission of the banking details process as an excuse.
“No one would wait for two months to submit banking details for their payment, those are clear lies,” said the sports commentator.
