Safpu slams ‘barbaric’ Swallows over salary crisis

The SA Football Players Union (Safpu) president Thulaganyo Gaoshubelwe has exposed Moroka Swallows’ failures following a financial crisis at the club, accusing them of being dishonest. He has threatened to take them to the PSL dispute resolution chamber.

At yesterday’s press conference in Johannesburg, Gaoshubelwe said the club had been struggling to pay players for months, with players honouring matches out of goodwill.

Last Friday, Swallows issued termination letters to 22 players who allegedly went on a go-slow in December, but Gaoshubelwe emphasised that players were never on strike.

“This whole thing that the players refused to play because they were not paid, is not true,” Gaoshubelwe said.

“The reality is that this matter has been on going. We’ve been engaging with the players. They were charged for not showing up for training on December 12, 13 and 14.

“But why have the players not been paid now? If you apply the principle of no work no pay, it means you will remove the days [that they didn’t train] and pay them the balance, but that was not the case.”

Gaoshubelwe said what Swallows are doing is “criminality”.

“It is difficult to take that decision or the outcome of the chairperson [of their disciplinary hearing] and go with it because the club has not adopted it,” he said.

“But we put them to terms to say they need to respond and if they don’t, we have to take the matter to the dispute resolution chamber to address those matters.”

Safpu secretary-general, Nhlanhla Shabalala, said the payroll at Swallows had collapsed as players were not paid in successive months last year.

“This narrated that players needed to be paid in advance,” Shabalala said.

“It was not about December. It is about all outstanding salaries from the other months and this has been long coming.

“In the past, players would plead and say we won’t be able to make it to training because we have run out of funds. We borrowed from friends and families and we have exhausted all avenues. But instead of being helped, they were fined for not coming to training. Now you can understand what we are dealing with. This is barbaric behaviour that does not respect and protect the contract of these players.”