TTM sale now awaiting PSL approval, club set to move to Polokwane

The sale of Tshakhuma Tsha Madzivhandila has been forwarded to the Premier Soccer League (PSL)’s executive committee for approval, Phakaaathi has learned.

The owner of TTM, Masala Mulaudzi is believed to have filed all the necessary documents with the PSL, and the club should soon belong to Abram Sello, who owns an ABC Motsepe League side in Polokwane.

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“If the PSL approves the sale, Sello will relocate the club to Polokwane but will only rename it at the end of the season,” a source said.

“Everything is done and money has already exchanged hands. I think the new owners agreed to buy the club for R45-million, but only a R35-million will go to Mulaudzi with the other R10-million used to pay all the club’s debt including fees and salaries owed to players,” said the source.

The new owners were introduced to the players in a meeting late on Monday where he promised to change things and run the club professionally.

Speaking on Energy FM’s sports show on Tuesday, South African Football Players’ Union president, Thulaganyo Gaoshubelwe said they had also met the new owner of the club and made him write all he commits to do in writing and sign it.

“We just came to see the players as you know that it’s been reported that TTM will be exchanging hands. There is a sale transaction happening. We also know that if there is a sale, the executive of the league will have to approve,” said Gaoshubelwe.

“We have been in contact with the potential buyer, and I am saying potential because the league has not approved the sale, we have been in consultation with him in regards to players whose salaries are owed,” he added.

He however said as a union they are not able to dictate to club owners on who they want to keep at their teams but can e sure that proper protocol is followed during such negotiations where a club wishes to release a player.

“When it comes to job security, we may not say to a club owner, when he buys a club, ‘you cannot fire this one or that one’. We can’t interfere in that sense. But what they don’t have the liberty to do is fire people without honouring their contracts. If they want to terminate, they must terminate but give the player the balance of what was left in his contract.

“So, they must consult with the player, sit down with him and agree to a settlement. If a player is left with two years in his contract, maybe the player will say he wants one month salary’s worth or three months… or he can say he wants the whole balance of the contract because he had planned everything around the duration of his contract.

“In that sense our responsibility is to ensure that section 197 of the labour relations act is implemented to the letter as well as the PSL rules as well.”

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