Johannesburg – There is no end in sight with regards to the protracted PSL promotion/relegation saga involving Royal AM and the league bosses.
Yesterday, the PSL disciplinary committ ee (DC) sought to sit down and hand down punishment to Royal AM, after charging the club for not honouring their four play-offs matches at the end of the season.
In what is a shot in the arm for Royal AM, the matter has been postponed until Saturday, July 24.
The postponement will surely worry the league bosses in terms of kick-off for the new season.
The KZN club, owned by the flamboyant businesswoman Shauwn Mkhize, has taken the league to court claiming that they should get automatic promotion to the PSL because “they finished number one on the log in terms of points accumulated”.
Sekhukhune United were officially declared the winners of the GladAfrica Championship after a court ruling.
They were then promoted to the PSL, meaning Royal AM were runners-up and had to contest the play-offs.
They did not honour all four matches and have since been charged by the PSL DC.
Said PSL prosecutor Nande Becker yesterday: “The club brought an application for a postponement without the necessary documentation. As a result, and in the best interest of justice, they have been given an opportunity to file the required papers and the matter will be heard next Saturday.”
Eric Mabuza, the legal representative of Royal, said that it was clear that the DC should await the outcome of the court judgment, which was argued on Wednesday.
“Part of the court case is the question of the PSL being in contempt of court. If we are right, this DC hearing is a waste of time. It was a wise decision by the PSL not to continue with the hearing until the case is finalised.”
On Friday, Royal AM showed more defiance when they wrote to Becker requesting that the DC hearing should be postponed.
“We submit that it would be imprudent and grossly unreasonable to continue with the disciplinary hearing, more so given the fact that our client has already sought to have the acting CEO of the PSL held in aggravated contempt of court for the very conduct of charging our client.
“To put it bluntly, the PSL would be continuing with the contempt of court if it were to proceed with the disciplinary hearing, alternatively, the PSL will be pre-empting or pre-judging the outcome of the judgment, which in itself constitutes further contempt of court,” reads the letter of Royal AM sent to the league.
Two weeks ago, Royal AM lawyers were pushing for acting PSL CEO Mato Madlala to be imprisoned. “Our view is that the PSL have acted against the order of judge Nyathi,” said head of legal Happy Godi.
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