Chiefs encouraged in investor hunt
Boitumelo Khutsafalo | Friday May 21, 2021 20:39
The club recently confirmed that it has reserved 70% of the shares in the company, Mochudi Centre Chiefs (Pty) Limited for any potential investor.
The 20% has been allocated to a consortium representing founders of the club while the remaining 10% is reserved for supporters.
Club vice chairperson, Olebile Sikwane said investors want a fully-fledged private entity and no one wants to put money into a ‘society’.
He said they have been very careful because they still have internal furniture to organise before they go all out to the market for partnerships.
The current committee has been given the mandate to privatise the club as a matter of priority. Recently there have been social media reports that entrepreneur, Otsile Moje could be interested in coming on board at Magosi. The reports gave hope to Magosi supporters who have to pray for their once-dominant club’s revival.
Responding to reports, Sikwane said Moje as a successful entrepreneur from Mochudi would naturally be associated with the club as it seeks to undergo commercialisation through privatisation.
He said they are encouraged by that kind of thinking because ordinarily, it should be local business people who should show interest in their own club and product. “I am quite hopeful that this possibility could reach Mr Moje.
It would really boost his business fortunes. Patrice Motsepe never looked beyond his own home club Mamelodi Sundowns when he showed interest to invest in sports,” Sikwane said.
Just like other projects of the same nature who have faced stiff challenges from some quarters on their way to becoming private entities, there have been reports that some members of the club are against the current developments at the Chiefs.
The reports particularly point to the allocation of shares to some members who are said to be the founders of the club. However, Sikwane shot down the reports explaining that the general membership took a resolution to privatise the club. “We have not had any objections, we cannot have any, for the people themselves took a resolution to privatise the club.
Any objection would be to reverse their own resolution which would be disingenuous and unlawful. Only an AGM can undo the resolution to privatise the club,” he said. He, however, added that they have been very friendly to views and opinions and we have interacted with branches to keep them in the loop.
“If we cannot privatise now we will need another 49 years to privatise.
We have found a common ground with the founders of the club and we have now embarked on privatisation and return to the Premier League whilst also focusing on the anchor component of all this, which is the unity of all stakeholders,” he said.
Magosi will go into the second season in the lower division following years of internal bickering, which gave birth to two parallel committees running the club. They have since reached a common ground.