Chippa owner slams Safa for Buffalo City tickets mess 

Chippa United owner Siviwe Mpengesi has fired a salvo at Safa Buffalo City, which is accusing him of having a dodgy relationship with the Buffalo City Municipality (BCM). 

Safa Buffalo City accused Mpengesi and his related group of companies of grabbing the city’s sports facilities and taking the budget for sports and community development services. 

A month ago, the PSL club posted on its social media, saying that the BCM had bought 11 000 tickets (worth in the region of R450 000) for the Chippa versus Marumo Gallants league match played at the Buffalo City Stadium in East London. 

This week, the Chippa boss took a swipe at Safa Buffalo City president Mxolisi Sibam and its secretary Zolani Ngesmani. Sibam is also a member of the Safa national executive committee and chairman of the finance committee. 

“The issue of tickets and donation by the municipality was put in the wrong context. There was no money exchanged in that transaction. As you know Chippa United is funded and has partnered with the municipality to host some PSL games,” Mpengesi told Sunday World. 

“This is motivated by the fact that there is no PSL football in the Eastern Cape, especially that side – so the municipality gets branded and advertised. Small businesses benefit, the community benefits, and also sports development is improving. 

“The municipality pays Chippa, just like Nelson Mandela Bay is doing. From what they are giving us, we decided to buy back a lot of tickets by donating them as a lot of people could not afford R40 since it was January. 

“Chippa is not a profit-making business, we are there for development and for supporting the economy there,” he added. 

“We decided to give away a lot of tickets, especially from small games against clubs like Marumo Gallants or Sekhukhune United, the so-called small teams, where you know that you will not attract a lot of people. That’s how this thing of the tickets happened. 

“Maybe our writer put it in the wrong context by saying that the municipality bought tickets – there was no cash involved, we took from the municipality’s funding of our club, and this is something that we will continue to do.” 

Mpengesi explained further that the Safa people in the region want to kick the club out of the stadium despite it having a long-term lease agreement. 

“When it comes to Safa in that region, I have only met a man called [Mxolisi] Sibam, who came in his personal capacity. We did not talk about football development or getting access to stadiums; we talked about business and his personal interests. 

“The only thing that he wants is to get the stadium that I have a long-term lease with. I wanted to accommodate them, but they wanted to do it on their terms and also not to pay rent – and going as far as choosing which office they wanted.” 

The Chippa boss mentioned that the Safa BCM officials were jealous of the strides the club made after they enhanced the stadium. 

“We took a stadium that was dilapidated, and which had turned into a house of criminals.  

“Sibam used to have offices there. When we started bringing PSL football, he was always calling on people to boycott our games – and no one was taking him seriously. 

“He can write letters using the Safa letterheads because he is a Safa regional president. It is not the Safa secretary [Ngesmani] who wrote the contents of the letter and signed it, it is Sibam. 

“I don’t even know the guy [the secretary]. He is just a puppet of Sibam. So, I do not want to dwell much about it because it is not important.”  

Mpengesi added that they were still going to give out more free tickets to their games for those who do not have money and want to see Chippa United play. 

“People must come, we will make a plan. Those who have money can buy tickets.  

“We are there to develop sports in the Eastern Cape, the Chippa project is the only hope for the Eastern Cape. We will talk more about our plans to fix Buffalo City,” Mpengesi said. 

Ngesmani responded and said that Mpengesi cannot explain the issue of the free tickets himself. 

“Maybe he shall have better explanation to the public protector and other law enforcement agencies. It is unfortunate that the city manager of Buffalo City Metropolitan Municipality is missing in action in all of this, we requested a copy of all contracts with Chippa United FC from him. To date he has not responded.  

“We’re going to take the matter up with the minister of sport and the president of the country,” said Ngesmani. 

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