The Molemela family gave Max Tshabalala their blessings to sell Bloemfontein Celtic, the club which has been the sporting heartbeat of the Free State for many years.

Sello Molemela, the son of former Bloemfontein Celtic owner Petrus Molemela, said he fully understands and respects Tshabalala’s decision to sell the club to Durban businesswoman Shauwn Mkhize.

Tshabalala, who until recently owned the club, after he bought it from Jimmy Augousti in 2014, sold its status to Mkhize for a mouth-watering fee believed to be in the region of R50m last week.

“My brother, if you are in business you will understand that what happened was purely a business transaction. Somebody had an asset and he saw it fit that he must sell it and that’s how it goes in business,” said Sello Molemela.

Molemela, who was speaking on behalf of the family, said Tshabalala had the decency to inform them of his decision to sell Celtic, and offer it to the family, but they could not afford to buy it back.

“I want to put it on record that Max Tshabalala called us as the family to tell us that he was selling the club. We thanked him for showing decency and respect to our late father and we gave him our blessings as the family.

“He had no business to call us but he did it and we understand that people sell all the time.

“If we were honest and didn’t want Celtic to go away, business people in the Free State could have put money on the table and bought this club from Max, but we didn’t do that.

“Now that Max has sold the club, people are crying foul, but you can’t tell me that we don’t have enough people in this province who could have put money on the table and saved this club.

“We could even have engaged people from elsewhere to contribute and commit themselves to the club staying in the province. Let’s give Tshabalala a break because he tried his level best to run this club and, like other previous owners, it was time for him to move on.

“By the way, Max has been crying out for help for the longest time but people didn’t come to the rescue.”

Sello Molemela said that, as an individual, he could not afford Tshabalala's price.

“I had a conversation with him but I couldn’t afford the money he was asking. As a family, we had our chance to run the club in the past, and we did what we did at that time. It is time to move on to other things.

“The founder members of this club were Norman Mathobisa and Victor Mahatane and they sold it to my father in the 1960s, who turned it into a professional side and put in on the map in South Africa.

“My father later saw fit to sell the club and he sold it to Jimmy Augousti, and for reasons best known to him, Jimmy sold the club to Max Tshabalala and Tshabalala sold it to whoever he sold it to.”