Orapa back in the dock over unfair dismissal
Koketso Kgoboge | Friday November 6, 2020 14:17
The case reached the courts in Francistown on Wednesday. It is the third case in a year that the Ostriches faced for flouting contractual agreements.
Earlier in the year, FIFA ordered the club to pay their former coach Tomas Trucha for unfair dismissal. Koolese suffered a similar fate as Trucha after spending four years with the club.
He joined the Ostriches in 2014 on a two-year contract as an assistant coach to Maxwell Moyo. He went on to assist Madinda Ndlovu and Daniel Nare.
In 2016, he experienced a medical condition that kept him out of work for the whole year. When he returned from his sick leave, he agreed to a one-year contract with the club.
He served six months of the contract before he was sacked. His ‘unfair dismissal’ matter was first reported to the labour authorities at his home village in Serowe. It was after he had joined his home side Miscellaneous.
He coached Miscellaneous until the end of last season. Following delays, the Serowe authorities resolved they could not hear the matter as it occurred outside their jurisdiction.
They referred the coach to Letlhakane labour authorities.
The matter was deemed invalid due to the time factor and dismissed. The coach took his dissatisfactions with his legal advisors and they dragged the club to court. On Wednesday the court ordered that the parties settle the matter out of court. When he confirmed the outcome, Koolese said he was happy. He confirmed his cry was unfair dismissal that came without any reasons and without compensation for the remainder of his contract.
“We shouldn’t be fighting court cases. It doesn’t interest me. I think this is the best resolution for the club and myself. I am confident that Orapa United would sort out their end of the agreement and the matter would finally be brought to rest,” he said.
The coach was coy about how much the diamond-mining club owed him. When contacted about the matter, the club spokesperson Kabo William said they were yet to get a report from the team that represented the club.
In their chain of cases this year, it was reported that the club paid Trucha over P100,000. Galenamotlhale was also to receive over a P100,000 from the Ostriches after winning his case at the Botswana Football Association Dispute Resolution Chamber.