Swallows failed to pay players for months

The matter between Moroka Swallows and their sacked players appears to be far from over after the SA Football Players Union (Safpu) exposed more alleged wrongdoings by the club.

Swallows, who have made the news for all the wrong reasons over the past few months, sacked 22 players after an internal disciplinary process.

The club terminated the contracts of players after they went on strike over unpaid salaries in December, causing Swallows’ failure to honour their last two fixtures of 2023.

Failure to attend games against Mamelodi Sundowns and Golden Arrows landed the Dube Birds on the wrong side of Premier Soccer League (PSL). It slapped Swallows with a R1m fine, of which R600,000 is suspended for 24 months for bringing the league into disrepute.

Sundowns and Arrows were each awarded three points as the fixtures were treated as a walkover.

Safpu president Thulaganyo Gaoshubelwe revealed Swallows players have allegedly been playing without being paid salaries for a few months, not only in November and December. “This problem doesn’t start now,” Gaoshubelwe said.

“The players of Moroka Swallows have been honouring the games without getting their salaries as they ought to in relation to their contracts of employment.

“The issue of unpaid salaries has been going on for a while.

“We have been engaging with the players. We agreed with the players and said ‘explore all the internal avenues. Agree with the club and once everything is fine, we are good but to the extent that you need the organisation to be involved we will get involved’.”

The players have been charged with failing to attend training on December 12, 13 and 14.

“On December 26 they also didn’t go to training and the club told them they will implement a no pay of salaries thing.”

Gaoshubelwe argued that players should have been paid for the days they have worked, minus the four days they didn’t train. That the club is negotiating with sacked players and that they will choose who will return, is “evil and diabolic”, he said.

Safpu said the process is illegal.