The head coach of Black Leopards Football Club, Mr Joel Masutha, his assistant, Mr Morgan Shivambu, and the goalkeeper coach, Mr Sam Banda, may have been added to the millions of jobless people in the country.
During an interview with Mr Masutha, he confirmed that the trio were summoned to an urgent meeting called by the chairman of the club, Mr David Thidiela, on Monday morning. He said that, in that meeting, Mr Thidiela wanted an explanation from the technical team regarding the team's poor results over the past weeks. "The Prophet", as he is affectionately called, said that Banda and Shivambu were the first to give their sides of the story. He further stated that Mr Thidiela was not satisfied with the explanation from the two.
According to him, the chairman had looked very agitated after Shivambu and Banda had tried to justify why the team had lost four of the five league games they had played to date. He said Mr Thidiela then told them that they were all suspended with full pay before he was accorded an opportunity to give his side of the story.
According to him, they all went to the team's training sessions on Monday and Tuesday afternoon, despite their verbal suspension. Asked why they had decided to ignore the verbal suspension by Mr Thidiela and gone to the team's training sessions, Mr Masutha said that they had regarded the suspension as of no force and effect until being produced in writing.
The trio were still to receive written notices of suspension from the club at the time of our going to print.
When trying to justify the move, Mr Thidiela said that he had not intended to place the trio on precautionary suspension. According to him, their reactions during the meeting had propelled him to take that drastic action. He said that the three men had done so much for the club over the past years and that the team's poor results over the past weeks were nothing compared to the contributions they had made to the club.