Battle weary Rollers ready to move on
Boitumelo Khutsafalo | Tuesday February 2, 2016 15:12
The issue divided Rollers’ faithful with two rival camps pulling in opposite directions even after the formation of an interim committee. However the camps seem ready to pull in one direction after the Saturday meeting, which ushered in a new executive committee.
Mookodi Seisa, who together with several other members had successfully challenged the manner in which the club was run, has said that he respects the decision made by the Rollers supporters on Saturday.
“I was not at the meeting and had sent an apology. The majority of Rollers’ members have spoken. What we need to do now is let sleeping dogs lie and focus on taking this team to greater heights.
We should also stop this unbecoming behaviour of hurling insults at each other on social media,” he said. Seisa said while other members initially felt he and others were trying to destroy the team, all they were doing was to ensure that the constitution of the club was not violated.
Club chairperson, Walter Kgabung, who retained his position hailed Rollers members for an orderly meeting. “There were no unrests as initially feared. The work starts now,” he said.
He said they intend to have concluded their negotiations with Jagdish Shah before the end of February after the general membership endorsed a commercialisation model. “They gave us the green light to amend the constitution to allow for the incoming of an investor.
We will then submit the constitution to the Registrar of Societies,” he said. Kgabung said Shah is their best option for now because they worked with him for the past two years and understand him better. “Our aspirations and ambitions are in line with his thinking. We want to have concluded and signed a contract with him before the end of the month, but that is subject to approval of the constitution by the Registrar,” he said.
The current agreement with Shah comes to an end this month. Kgabung said if the Registrar does not approve the constitution, they will seek another short-term agreement with Shah while they sort the issue out as a club.
Meanwhile, there are reports that some members feel aggrieved after they were denied entry at the meeting and contemplate taking the matter to court.
However, Kgabung said they have not officially received anything regarding that but explained that they had invited every Rollers member whether registered in the 1990s or not. “We asked them to also bring identity cards so that we could verify if the cards belong to them.
So it is not true that we denied members entry into the meeting,” he said. He also said it will be their right if they feel aggrieved, but added that the issues of taking the matters to the courts are tarnishing the club’s image.