Thabo Rakhale remembers a match day when he and his Township Rollers teammates embarked on a tiring three-hour drive. With each mile traversed under the relentless Botswana sun, their anticipation grew as they navigated the winding roads.
But their thoughts were consumed by the crucial league match that awaited them that very afternoon. Each bump on the road echoed their eagerness as they prepared to play a must-win game, despite the exhaustion of the long ride ahead.
For Rakhale, that trip epitomised the challenges faced by Rollers players before the arrival of Tendani Sebata, a businessman based in South Africa. The late payment of salaries had become so common that it almost no longer concerned them.
“It was difficult, especially when playing away games,” Rakhale tells FARPost. “I recall the game we travelled to play, about three hours away [from Gaborone]. We left in the morning and played that same afternoon.”
With the future of Popa, Botswana’s most successful club, uncertain, the former Orlando Pirates tearaway winger is a worried man. After the 16-time Botswana champions extended his contract on the eve of the current season, Rakhale has spent much of the campaign sidelined due to an Achilles tendon injury.
As painful as that injury was, it at least showed the 35-year-old the value of a well-managed club.
“It was a setback that I got injured, especially at the beginning of the season. I got a lot of support. The positive thing was that my injury was attended to, and the surgery was successful. And since then, I’ve been receiving support, especially from management on this side,” adds the ex-PSL star Rakhale.
AFTER SPENDING R30 MILLION, SEBATA ANNOUNCES ROLLERS’ EXIT
Spending time on the sidelines with an injury is always a scary prospect for any professional footballer. During any extended time on the sidelines, players are left wondering if they will ever recover or return as the same player when they eventually do.
For Rakhale, such fears were allayed by a club that was in tune with the needs of an old lion nursing his wounds during the final years of his career. A year later, however, it seems that players facing adversity might not get the same help afforded to the Vaal-born star at his hour of need.
On Tuesday, it was reported that Zimbabwean businessman Sebata has ended his multimillion-rand partnership deal with Rollers after investing R30 million over the past year.
Sebata came into the picture last year, entering into a five-year agreement with Popa. He immediately exorcised some of the club’s financial demons, purchased a luxury coach for the team, settled some outstanding debts, and injected BWP7.5 million [approximately R9.5 million] into the club’s daily operations. He also ensured that operational costs such as fuel, vehicles, kits, player accommodation, training field expenses, media equipment, and office furniture were all catered for.
A year later, Sebata is walking away, citing significant governance issues, regulatory non-compliance, and alleged misrepresentation of the club’s ownership structure.
At the time of this interview with FARPost, Rakhale, now in the final stages of his rehabilitation, had not been formally informed that Sebata had pulled the plug on Mapalastina.
RAKHALE AWARE OF THE AFTERSHOCKS OF SEBATA’S EXIT
“I haven’t met with anyone from the club because I didn’t go to the afternoon session. I saw it on Facebook on one of the football pages. We haven’t heard that formally from our management,” says the former Sekhukhune United and Polokwane City FC man.
While he might still be on the sidelines, the South African is fully aware of the potential aftershocks of Sebata’s withdrawal of support. Life before the businessman came on board was not easy for the club’s players.
“I think it would be another setback if we had to lose him now. We had a bit of struggle from the previous season, and now he has changed some of those things. You can’t change everything overnight, but I think it will be a big setback if we lose him now. He brought a lot of change. From the season that I came here, I have seen changes,” declares Rakhale.
Late salaries, poor travel logistics, and general poor player welfare became things of the past with Sebata at the helm. Even the women’s team benefited from his hands-on leadership, as the Rollers Ladies’ team became one of the few in the league offering stipends. All these positive changes, Rakhale says, would be in danger with his exit.
“The issue of salaries is known,” Rakhale explains. “We were getting salaries late, but that changed when Sebata came in. We were getting used to the fact that we would get our money late. So, there are small changes from the new management. It was just something important.”
WILL TOWNSHIP ROLLERS HAVE BETTER FORTUNES AFTER SEBATA’S EXIT?
As he heads into the twilight of his career, stability has become increasingly crucial to Rakhale. However, amid the revelations this week, it is doubtful that he will get it under a new regime if Sebata exits.
The businessman was reportedly misled into believing he was acquiring an interest in the club, only to discover later that the entity “Township Rollers Pty Ltd” still belongs to former chairman Jagdish Shah.
With such boardroom subterfuge at the heart of the dispute, it is doubtful that it could be resolved, or another sponsor would wish to come in under similar conditions.
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