Royal AM players left in the lurch as MaMkhize is unable to pay them 

Royal AM players are facing a bleak Good Friday after not receiving their March salaries. The players will also not be paid part of their April salaries.  

This comes after the club was placed under Sars curatorship for monies owed to the taxman by club owner Shauwn “MaMkhize” Mkhize. 

These latest and unsettling developments were revealed by South African Football Players Union acting president Tebogo Munyai.  

On Thursday, the PSL’s board of governors (BoG) rubber-stamped its executive committee’s decision to terminate the club’s membership as the team has been unable to honour league and cup fixtures since the beginning of the year.  

Mkhize is embroiled in a legal battle with Sars after it was reported that she owes the taxman about R40-million. 

“All the players’ salaries for March have not yet been paid. There are players who were owed signing-on fees as well. Signing-on fees are not paid once off, they are paid in instalments. That money has not been paid, according to the club and the players. Royal AM was able to pay the players’ salaries for January, and the February salaries were only paid in March.  

“The players were in camp until last week when the club called them to a meeting and told them that they must go home until further notice,” Munyai told Sunday World.  

He said with the club expelled from the league, it no longer exists within the PSL structures, and that as a union their hands are tied, and they have been left with no option but to engage legal experts on the matter.  

He explained further that they can no longer take the matter to the dispute resolution chamber (DRC) of the PSL. 

“Previously, we were able to take the matter to the DRC, and if a player won a case, the league could attach the club’s monthly grant and pay the concerned player. We don’t have that avenue anymore. We are pursuing other legal avenues to get advice on how we can still claim the monies for the remainder of the players’ contracts.”  

Munyai said: “The curator said that he may run the process of liquidation and try to ensure that they recover the money, or some of it. If Sars recovers its money, everyone who is owed by the club will get a share from the amount that was recouped.  

“The club no longer exists, and we are afraid that players may have lost everything,” he explained further. 

Last week, after protracted deliberations, the executive committee made recommendations to the BoG that the club be expelled from the league after it failed to honour its fixtures.  

The BoG, comprising 16 PSL teams and 16 Motsepe Foundation Championship clubs, is the decision-making body of the SA professional league which voted to expel the club. 

 

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Kgomotso Mokoena