Date Set For Ruling On Rollers� Privatisation Case

Boitumelo Khutsafalo | Monday July 7, 2014 06:59

 

They are represented by Tefo Sibanda while Kgosietsile Ngakaagae appears for the club. Sibanda argued that the club is a society and cannot be run by a company (Township Holdings). He said the club’s constitution only allows the executive committee to run the team and not a company. 

He said that although some resolutions were agreed upon in principle during a special general meeting in 2012, they have not yet been confirmed because certain procedures have not been followed. At the meeting, Sibanda said, the general membership was to discuss among other things the amendment of the club constitution and the proposed assistance from businessman, Jagdish Shah. He said the proposed assistance by Shah could only be realised if the Rollers’ constitution had been amended. “That was on the basis that the club had been struggling financially over the years to do its activities,” he explained. Sibanda added that while Shah’s assistance was not clearly defined, the understanding by members was that the club changes from a society so that it is run professionally. 

He argued that while the members agreed in principle on bringing Shah on board, this could only be realised after the amendment of the club constitution. He said a task team was to be appointed to oversee that process and a meeting was to be held in February 2013 where the resolutions would be confirmed.  

“There was never a meeting held as had been agreed. Instead, Somerset Gobuiwang (Rollers boss) wrote a letter to the Registrar of Societies seeking to change the status of the club from a society into a company,” he said. He said the partnership with Shah was to happen only after the task force had done its job. 

However, Ngakaagae countered that the letter written by Gobuiwang was an error and that there was a retraction, which the applicants’ lawyer was fully aware of. He said that contrary to what Sibanda said, Rollers has never changed from a society to a company. “It is not for us to prove to this court that the society (Rollers) exists because we did not make this application,” Ngakaagae said. 

He added that the society still exists and is a shareholder in Township Holdings. He said the decision to form a company that the society can trade under was long taken in 2007 when the executive committee was directed to implement the resolution of the annual general meeting held the previous year. 

Ngakaagae challenged some applicants’ membership of the club. He said the applicants have nothing to show that they are members of Rollers. He wondered why Seisa would regard himself as a member of Rollers just because he served in the committee as far back as 1996. However, Sibanda argued that Seisa and the other applicants are members of the club.