PSL star trapped in poverty
Ajax won ’ t pay midfielder his salary or release him from contract after fallout
AJAX Cape Town midfielder Ndumiso Vezi’s promising career has ground to a halt.
The footballer, revered for his speed, is sitting at home in Folweni township, south of Durban, looking to his pensioner father for survival instead of living his childhood dream. The 24-year-old is contractually tied to the PSL club, which won’t release him or play him after he survived a hit-andrun car accident in October 2013 in Cape Town.
The club took him from the public Tygerberg Hospital to Blaauberg private clinic for rehabilitation and subsequently demanded that he pay back the R339 000 spent on his medical bill, he said. But Vezi maintained that he was made to sign a form he thought was for hospital release. After he was slapped with the bill, Vezi had a fallout with the club and his career has not been the same since.
Vezi said after the doctors deemed him fit to play in February 2014, two days into training he had a fallout with the assistant coach and was ordered to go to the dressing room.
He later got a letter from the club ordering him to vacate his lodging organised by Ajax.
Now back at home, his sister Fikile told Sowetan that he was suicidal and they were worried about him.
Vezi cried on the phone and said he gave up hope because he was restricted from working for his family.
His R5 600 salary from Ajax dried up in Feburary 2014 and the club told him that it’s because he owes them.
To keep fit he plays with youngsters in Folweni and still harbours hopes of returning to top-flight football.
Sowetan has seen the fixed one-year contract he signed in 2012, which comes with an option to renew every year until June 2016, all “at the sole discretion of Ajax”.
The agreement, which is in its fourth year, stipulates that his gross monthly salary for the first year would be R5 000, R6 000 for the second, R11 000 for the third and R12 000 for the fourth.
The pay has penalties and bonuses attached to it, depending on the player’s performance.
“I just want my papers so that I can play for other teams, as long as I get to work again,” Vezi lamented yesterday.
“I have the gift and I turn non-believers into believers. Now I can’t even earn a living with my gift. I do not know what they want from me,” he sobbed.
He added that his life had been paused, and that he depended on his retired father.
“No one works here at home. There is nothing else I can do, all I can do is hope I get my clearance.
“It is hard for me to get by without income. I am old and if I get a chance to play I can stand for myself. I want to work for my dad,” he said.
Ajax Cape Town chief executive officer Ari Efstathiou is currently out of the country. Club spokesman Milo Boer acknowledged receiving the request for comment from Sowetan but numerous attempts to solicit a response went unanswered by the time of going to print.