Sensational details have emerged in the Johannesburg High Court about how Pitso Mosimane signed his first contract to coach one of Africa’s richest football clubs Mamelodi Sundowns in the parking lot of a hospital.
Mosimane’s agent, Moira Tlhagale of MT Sports and Marketing, laid bare the behind- the- scenes shenanigans that unravelled in the final moments before the contract was signed in 2012.
“The night before the -appointment of the coach, there was so much back and forth until the president [Patrice Motsepe] called the coach to say that he wanted him to start the job immediately because the agents and the board were trying to confuse their relationship,” Tlhagale, who is also Mosimane’s wife, testified.
“The agreement in the early hours of the morning was that I was supposed to go to Bowman’s Attorneys for a meeting to deal with the clauses.
“In the morning, in my understanding, I was supposed to go to Bowmans and arrange with my legal team, but on my way there, I was told to go to another venue, which was a hotel in Midrand.
“And on my way there, I was told again not to go to that venue, and I ended up in a hospital, which is on the way to Sundowns offices.
“So, coach Pitso’s first contract was actually signed there at a parking lot without any of my lawyers or any of the changes that were required to be made, but because my coach wanted to coach, he said he would sign the contract,” -Tlhagale testified.
Tlhagale said in the parking lot there was Daniel Sime-lane, who was then a director at Sundowns and lawyers from Bowman Attorneys whose names she couldn’t recall.
Her company MT Sports, which represents Mosimane, is embroiled in a bitter legal battle over Sundowns’ demand that the coach pay back commission in agent’s fees in the region of R8.6-million.
Sunday World reported last week that Tlhagale had told the court she was not paid her agent commission from the first two Sundowns contracts that she negotiated for Mosimane in 2012 and the extension in 2016.
She also testified she had been ill-treated by the club -during contract negotiations based on her gender and race.
Tlhagale was testifying in the case heard by Judge Shanaaz Mia.
“The most difficult part for me during that time was that the day before the coach was appointed, we had sent our revised version of the -contract to Sundowns, and they had not returned it to us,” -Tlhagale told the court.
“I remember the night before getting a call from Mr Daniel Simelane [former Sundowns director] saying to me that the president [Patrice Motsepe] wants me to sign the contract immediately, and if not, they would go for another coach,” Tlhagale said.
“Then I made Mr Sime-lane aware that we were still waiting for their revised contract before we could –finalise anything, and I said to him, if that is the case, please tell the president [Motsepe] to go for another coach because I felt like we had not properly dealt with the clauses we did not agree with on the contract,” Tlhagale said.
She said in the contract -Sundowns had a clause in which they expected Mosimane to win every league game, deliver the Caf Champions League trophy every season, and win one of the three domestic trophies.
Tlhagale said, however, she was totally against the clause.
At that time Mosimane had just been fired as coach of the senior national team, Bafana Bafana and was itching to return to coaching.
“He said he knew that there is no coach in the world that could fulfil this performance, but insisted that he would take the job because he wanted to be back on the pitch,” said Tlhagale.
The hearing continues.
