The father of the late Mamelodi Sundowns player Gift Leremi is at loggerheads with the Brazilians and CAF president Patrice Motsepe over his son’s estate.
Robbie Leremi, who is staying with the footballer’s daughter, has accused the club and Motsepe of sidelining him, saying instead they are working with Gift’s then girlfriend Mamello Ralematha who lives in Soweto.
Robbie, who has been sending e-mails to Motsepe and Sundowns’s legal head Yogesh Singh, enquiring about the late soccer star’s assets, promised a full-scale, “war” until he gets justice for his son.
Speaking to Sunday World from his house in Klipspruit in Soweto, Robbie said he is hurt because he does not have the money to pay school fees for Gift’s teenage daughter.
The teenager has been staying with Robbie since Gift’s tragic death in a horrific car accident in Brackensdowns, Alberton in September 2007
Robbie said Gift, who is survived by three kids from previous relationships left a will and nominated his brother, Jeffrey Leremi, as executor of his estate.
He also appointed him as the custodian of his children.
Sadly, said Robbie, the former Orlando Pirates star’s other child, Mahlatse, died a year after the death of Gift.
“Gift had two kids with Mamello, who are Mahlatse and Kelebogile. He also had another child, Lesedi, with Vuyokazi,” said Robbie.
“Lesedi stays with me and she is the one who is owing school fees. I am trying to raise R10 000, so that I can pay for her fees. On the other hand, I am concerned about her future, as she needs to further her studies after matric.
“When the will surfaced, I took it to the Master of the High Court, so that Gift’s estate can be wound up, but Mamello interdicted the matter through her lawyers and claimed to be the spouse of my son.
“She raised questions about the signature of Gift on the will, and the matter was referred to handwriting experts to verify the authenticity of the signature.”
The handwriting expert and examiner Cecil Greenfield stated in his report, dated April 20 2019, that based on Gift’s two signatures which were sent to him, a 50% possibility was that the signature was authentic.
“It is not unusual for a person to have more than one way in which he or she signs documents, furthermore, natural variation is bound to occur in everybody’s signature,” said Greenfield.
Robbie said it is shocking that Sundowns sidelined him and chose to deal with Ralematha concerning Gift’s estate.
“Gift was not married to Mamello. It is troubling that she is poking her nose into the affairs of my child.
“Sundowns need to reveal the estate of Gift, so that we can know what he owned and how much money he had.
“I don’t know what happened to his assets.
“The only thing I had is his [soccer] jersey that was given to me by Sundowns,” he said sobbing.
He added that he has tried in vain to get the estate resolved when one Lawrence Seshoka wrote to Motsepe on January 25 2017 on his behalf.
Reads an e-mail sent to Motsepe: “On behalf of the Leremi family and particularly Mr Robbie Leremi, who has been copied herein, we make this open offer suggesting mediation and open dialogue between
Mamelodi Sundowns Football Club and the Leremi family.
“The purpose of the dialogue is to resolve matters that are still ongoing pertaining to the late Gift Mpho Leremi, his estate, and publications relating to the above [sic].
“We believe that mediation and open dialogue is a process which could facilitate a resolution of most, if not all the pertinent issues, and offers a less adversarial environment in which to do so.
“This request is of utmost urgency, we as a family feel that the interests of minors are directly implicated in these unresolved issues.”
When he received no response, Robbie wrote more e-mails to Motsepe in October 2019 and again on October 25 2022, but again these fell on deaf ears.
Motsepe later delegated club director Stanley Mabulu to meet with Robbie. The meeting took place at Silverstar Casino in Krugersdorp on April 27 2022.
Mabulu promised Robbie that he would do his best to help resolve the matter, but nothing concrete came Robbie’s way.
On June 21, Robbie wrote an e-mail to Sundowns head of legal Singh expressing his dissatisfaction with Mabulu.
Reads the e-mail: “I have been raising his daughter who never benefited from the proceeds held at the club. We have, with humility, asked to be assisted with her current and future tuition, and nothing is forthcoming.
“Our engagement culminated to [sic] a meeting with Mr Mabulu, and to date there is no satisfactory results.
“We appeal to you to advance a report on how his funds were finally disbursed by the club, as we owe this to her [sic] daughter.
“We even intend to investigate ways to retrieve the portion due to her [sic] by law from whomsoever claimed to be the exclusive beneficiary.”
Singh did not respond to Robbie, prompting him to send another e-mail to Motsepe on July 6 in which he complained again.
“I was initially of the impression that your intervention in allocating Mr Mabulu was sincere.
“I am inclined to conclude to the contrary since there has been zero progress on all the issues I communicated with him.
Singh confirmed that they met with Robbie and told him that they could only share Gift’s information with the executor of his estate.
Ralematha declined to comment. “I will end up mad regarding this, so let the guy (Robbie) do whatever he wants.”
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