TTM to unveil coach and new players on Thursday, says CEO Chokoe

The new DStv Premiership side had a week of bad publicity after news that Norman Mapeza had left the club after just two days working with them and that they were considering dropping Oupa Manyisa three months after signing him.

Speaking to Limpopo based Energy FM on Tuesday, Chokoe denied that they had any sort of agreement with Mapeza and revealed that his working with the team was part of the interview process.

“We used a different method of assessment,” said Chokoe. “We didn’t just sit in the office, interviewing the coach and then signing a contract. We went through the process wherr we asked all the coaches who were shortlisted (to come in for assessment), of which we have finally found the one and we will unveil him on Thursday.

“All those coaches came, we did interviews, we talked about a probable contract they might expecting. We also allowed them to make observations on how we do things. That was part of the process,” added the former Baroka FC coach who has since become an administrator.

He admitted that they were careless in letting Mapeza’s brief association with the club leak to the public.

“Maybe it was wrong on how Mr Mapeza’s name leaked out… But at least we managed not to let the other two names get out. Even those two came and made their observations and left, it was also the same with Mr Mapeza and that was the process.

“That’s why I’m saying we’ve now finally arrived at a conclusion of who we’ve decided to appoint as the coach. We are now just finalising a few things and come Thursday he’ll also be announced with the new players that we’ve signed for the upcoming season.”

While it is unclear if the new coach has already started working with the team who have gone to Venda where the club will be based, Chokoe confirmed that the new mentor will be on the bench for their MTN8 quarter-final match against SuperSport United on Saturday afternoon.

“Yes definitely he’ll be on the bench on the day. He is not coming with his own assistant, we will still use Lucky Nelukau, who was the caretaker coach. He will now be a new assistant coach.”

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