Controversy surrounds charity event
A GROUP of bikers, who apparently posed as members of the Diamond Knights Bikers Club in Kimberley, could face legal action after being accused of hijacking the club’s annual charity event, which the club postponed.
The group, however, went ahead with event, which took place on August 27.
The Rambo Motorcycle Council slammed the group of bikers who claimed that they were part of its affiliate club, the Diamond Knights Bikers in Kimberley,
The Rambo Council, the mother body of motorcycle clubs, agreed with the Knights to hold an AGM in order to resolve internal matters that hindered the planned event from taking place.
The decision was taken after the club approached Rambo for intervention, as an independent mediator, to resolve an internal dispute between members, which was threatening to break up the club.
The Knights’ event has been on the calendar for this year and was supposed to be honoured by all bikers across the country, until it was discovered that there were serious internal challenges.
A small group of disgruntled members, some of whom were on the organising committee of the charity event due to holding executive positions, were slammed, ousted and replaced during the club’s AGM because they (the group) decided to distance themselves from the AGM.
The group decided to proceed with the event, which they said was very successful. During the event they handed over food parcels to beneficiaries.
A representative of the group, Wandie Geco, said they held a successful charity drive and that the beneficiaries were happy.
According to Rambo, the annual charity event was agreed on during the planning of the events calendar in 2021. The event had to be cancelled a month before taking place, regardless of being advertised on various platforms as well as in the media.
Sipho Sikabopha Gxotha, the president of the Knights, said the
club’s AGM was held as planned by the majority of members.
He mentioned the possibility that the absent group might have handed over donations which were initially prepared for the charity event.
Gxotha added that they can also not confirm who the recipients of the donations were or who the group worked in partnership with.
“We distance ourselves from the event and do not recognise it because the majority of our members were at the AGM. We tried our best to send out notices to our sponsors and partners as soon as the decision was made to cancel the event,” Gxotha said.
“The event was on Rambo’s calendar, as decided by all the clubs under Rambo, but this group hijacked it. We decided to rather postpone the event and first deal with our internal matters.
"They did not have the right to use the name of the Knights club.“
Gxotha said service providers have approached the club, demanding outstanding payments following the so-called charity event.
He pointed out that the group of bikers used their influence to reach their objective, in some instances, as they formed part of the previous exco.
“Those members knew what they were doing, and what they were trying to cover up.”
He added that reasons for them being ousted include financial mismanagement and missing donations and that the club was in the process of consolidating everything and doing a financial audit, which could possibly result in legal action.