DOPER SEEKS REDRESS
Former Bucs star ‘dumps’ agent ahead of court battle
FACED with a four-year ban from football after pleading guilty to a drug violation charge, Thandani Ntshumayelo has subsequently thrown his longtime agent Tim Sukazi under the bus.
The latter, however, said this week he was still eager to help the player salvage what is left of his career despite Orlando Pirates ter minating Ntshumayelo’s contract soon after the SA Institute for Drug-Free Sport (SAIDS) revealed there were traces of cocaine in his urine following a random test in a Premier Soccer League (PSL) match in January.
Sukazi has known 26-year-old Ntshumayelo since he was a teenager, but the two have not spoken to each other since May when it became evident the player’s future would soon be in a tailspin.
Ntshumayelo has claimed that Sukazi, who is also a lawyer, pressured him into a guilty plea and is now eager to go to court to fight the SAIDS findings.
“He has decided to take a different route by instructing another firm of attorneys to deal with the matter. I am not involved,” Sukazi explained. “From my side as Thandani’s football agent, the relationship remains the same. Like all our players, he remains a player we care a lot about, especially now that he is in the situation he finds himself in. We understand he is in a desperate situation where he is vulnerable to follow any kind of advice that seems make sense in helping him get his life back.”
Determined to do this without support from Sukazi, Ntshumayelo, through new representatives, is questioning the accuracy of the findings that came from a laboratory in Bloemfontein, one which was suspended by the World Doping Agency (Wada) on May 3 – four months after the player’s urine sample was taken at a PSL match. The argument is that there is a likelihood results from that random test were irregular.
Then why did Sukazi not try to use this in favour of his client?
“An Anti-Doping Laboratory in Qatar, which is accredited by the National Association of Testing Authorities in Australia, an authority responsible for the accreditation of laboratories worldwide, conducted a B-sample analysis of Ntshumayelo’s urine and the result came back to confirm the existence of a cocaine metabolite in his urine,” said Sukazi, who feels he is being made a scapegoat.
“So if there was a problem with the results from the SAIDS laboratory, someone needs to explain why the Anti-Doping Laboratory in Qatar found cocaine in Ntshumayelo’s urine samples.
“His first reaction was that Pirates tempered with his urine sample and therefore we need to test the B-sample. It is now up to Ntshumayelo to prove the sampling results from the Anti-Doping Laboratory in Qatar were incorrect.
“If he can do that, then he can have his day in court for sure. We worked to establish the facts as told by him and consistent with the sampling results of the SAIDS laboratory. Ntshumayelo gave a threepage blow-by-blow account under oath of how he took cocaine and no one spoke on his behalf.
“Now that the consequences are severe, he is seemingly taking a different course of action at someone’s expense.
“Should we be given leave by the authorities to divulge his confession on audio, perhaps we would be better doing that so that people could get a clearer picture and make their own assessment.”
Ntshumayelo is yet to speak publicly since his ban.
@superjourno