Gaxa’s tweet deal ‘won’t hold up’
EXPERT BACKS AMAKHOSI
SIBONISO Gaxa will find it difficult to hold Kaizer Chiefs to a contract extension, according to a legal expert who is well-versed in football contracts.
The defender has gone the legal route after Chiefs announced last month that the club won’t renew his contract that expired on June 30.
However, Gaxa’s agent Glyn Binkin is on record saying that Chiefs football manager Bobby Motaung had asked the player to sign a new two-year deal, which he did.
Binkin declined to comment further on the basis that the matter was now sub judice.
“The legal process is taking its course,” he said.
The furore followed a tweet on the Chiefs’ official Twitter account on October 21 last year that “Pa Gaxa has signed a 2 year contract extension with the club that will run from 01 July 2016 – 30 June 2018”.
However, Motaung said “there is no contract and I am not aware of the announcement [on Twitter] that the player signed a new contract because I never made the announcement”.
According to our informant – who asked to remain anonymous due to his involvement in player management – if both parties didn’t sign the document, then Gaxa doesn’t have a leg to stand on.
“A contract in law is a written record of an agreement between the parties, which is authenticated by a signature of both parties. So where one party signs and the other party hasn’t signed, that contract doesn’t take effect. It does not become legally binding. If Chiefs’ signature is not there, Gaxa can’t agree by himself,” said our source.
And regarding Chiefs’ tweet, the legal mind said: “It depends on the language used on Twitter.
“If the Twitter language says Chiefs and Gaxa have reached an agreement and signed, that’s what it means.
“That statement on its own is communication to the public through social media and it doesn’t constitute a legal binding agreement between Gaxa and Chiefs. It could be made in error or through recklessness, but that is a statement and not a contract.
“A contract is a white paper that says an agreement entered into between one Siboniso Gaxa and Kaizer Chiefs football club on such a date and the terms of which are as follows, signed and sealed,” he said.
“Social media, Facebook or Twitter is a means of communication on what one does whenever, wherever.
“But it does not result in a legally binding agreement.
“In other words, a deal between Gaxa and Kaizer Chiefs can never be consummated by social media. In any case, we will have to leave it in the hands of the judge.”
Chiefs refused to comment further, citing the fact the matter was sub judice. It is expected to be heard before the PSL’s dispute resolution chamber.