AmaZulu chairman replies…
On the salary cut
“Look, Memela is a fantastic player and he did a lot for AmaZulu in a short space of time. We were negotiating his future, for a 35-year-old, that we’d like to consider terms that would be favourable to him given that it would be
a two-year contract, but also be favourable to us as a club. He’s a great player, a good guy with an exemplary lifestyle, but one cannot run away from the fact that he is competing with 21-year-olds who can run for 90 minutes. So, we were basically saying, ‘Can we find each other halfway?’ Don’t get me wrong, I’m not an ageist because some of the best-performing players in the team were the older ones and Memela is a perfect example of that. He’s smart and he made the minutes he had on the pitch count. But what it really means is that you can’t have him for 90 minutes, so you’ve got to manage him. It’s like that with players his age all around the world, and you almost have to customize their packages, and that’s where we were at. There’s no truth in that we wanted to cut his salary. I can’t get into details
of that, but his salary was going to be structured. His take-home salary would not have been affected. We were going to structure it in such a way that it would be tax-efficient for him and the team. I didn’t get an opportunity to discuss with him directly, we were working with his agent, as it often happens in cases of this nature. We took a decision that if we cannot find each other, then we don’t want to waste your time. I personally hold Memela in high regard to an extent that beyond his playing career, if he wants to consider something else, my door is very wide open for him. That’s what it boiled down to – there was no arguments, no banging of doors. I sent out a message to him, by the way, that maybe we could have another discussion. I don’t run my business on someone’s terms, it should be on mutual terms. Not ‘if it’s not mine, then it’s the highway’. As a businessman, there are lines I don’t cross. My message to him would be that we did appreciate his contribution to the team and we wish him nothing but the best and should paths cross in future, AmaZulu’s door is open for him, not as a player, but post his playing days. He’s highly regarded and loved by the supporters of AmaZulu. We let go of about 16 players and 95% of the queries and calls we got were, ‘Why did you let go of Memela?’ If you have a line of communication to him, my attitude is one of regret that I lost him.”
On being unavailable to talk to Memela
“It cannot be true because I’m in the same WhatsApp group with all the players in my team, therefore all the players know that I can communicate with them directly. My line is open to anyone, even to the cleaners. I try to maintain a personal relationship with everyone. On matters like this that affect your career, I expect anyone to call me directly and not rely on others. I don’t know who said my door is closed for him and if he can tell me who that person is, then I’d take up a serious issue with that individual. So, with due respect, I disagree that my door was closed. And knowing what I know now that he was under the misconception that I didn’t want to talk to him, I wish he would have spoken to me directly because the buck stops with me, I’m the one who signs personal terms and I’m the one who understands and bears the financial implications. I wish he’d have reached out to me and ask that I explain what was on the table and I’d have gone as far as explaining to him and ask him if he still feels strongly that he’s been short-changed.”