Johannesburg – A titanic legal game over agent commission fees for soccer stars Buhle Mkhwanazi and Brandon Peterson is at play between two football agents and the defunct Bidvest Wits Football Club.
Sunday World can reveal that Mkhwanazi’s agent Siyavuma Sports Group and Peterson’s Davids Sports Management are demanding more than R1.2-million in agent commissions linked to the salaries of the two Bafana Bafana stars from the former PSL club, which was sold to Limpopo-based businessman Lawrence Mulaudzi last year.
Davids is demanding R400 000 linked to Peterson’s undisclosed salary and Siyavuma R750 000 for Mkhwanazi’s R175 000 monthly salary.
Details of the trio’s showdown came to the fore when the two agents filed papers on two separate dates at the Joburg High Court, seeking orders to force the club to remit payments due.
In court papers dated May 13, Siyavuma boss Keegan Dane Wasserfall said Bidvest Wits, represented by Jose Ferreira, signed Mkhwanazi to ply his trade at the club from July 1, 2018.
He said the club agreed to pay his company R695 200 as a procurement fee for the period of June 1, 2018 to June 30, 2019.
The club, he said, also agreed to pay R750 000 from July 1, 2019 until June 30 last year and a further R750 000 from July 1 last year until June 30.
Wasserfall further said the Wits lawyer Baker McKenzie wrote him a letter on September 9 last year, informing him that the club was sold to Black Gold Family Trust owned by Mulaudzi on June 13 and all existing contracts and liabilities were transferred to him.
Mulaudzi changed the club’s name to Tshakhuma Tsha Madivhandela Football Club.
As a result of the sale of the club, he added, Wits said they were no longer party to the procurement agreement and not liable to him at all.
He said when he requested Wits to provide him with the sale agreement they refused and said it was confidential.
They said TTM or the trust was liable for the player’s 2021 signing fees, which included his outstanding balance. In his application dated May 19 this year, Davids said Wits represented by Jonathan Schloss, signed Peterson to the club on February 28 last year and agreed to pay him R400 000 as procurement fee before July 1 last year, but failed to do so.
“The defendant has breached the agreement in that it has failed and or neglected and or refused to make payments in terms of the agreement and the defendant is currently indebted to the plaintiff in the sum of R400 000,” the papers state.
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