Ex-coaches drag Nico to labour

CALISTUS KOLANTSHO
Correspondent | Thursday March 4, 2010 00:00

 

Gundani's case will be heard today while Muchina's hearing has been set for next Thursday. Before they were sacked, Gundani was Nico head coach assisted by Muchina.

When the club suspended Gundani, it argued that he had failed to report for duty on January 4, as agreed. In a letter dated February 1, Nico chairperson, Eitlhomilwe Raditshego accused the coach of failing to obey orders.

But Gundani refutes the charges saying he had told the players before the Christmas break that training would resume on January 5. 'I gave the players a training programme to follow during the festive season and having been paid my salary, I left for Zimbabwe on December 20. I returned to Botswana on January 4 and even my passport has the border stamp of the same date,' he said.

He said training resumed on the agreed date and he was taken aback when the management accused him of failure to report for duty. Gundani dismissed the accusations as baseless.

He said he had presented match reports regularly when requested to do so contrary to claims by club officials. He argued that meetings at the club were not calendared events and are announced telephonically on the day they are to be held.

'In all the meetings that I attended, there were no minutes of the previous meetings. There is nothing tangible which indicates I was asked persistently and I refused to submit or present a match report,' he said.

Gundani said he was surprised that the charges were termed serious misconduct when in fact, in the 16 games he was in charge, the management never gave him a written warning for failure to avail match reports. The Zimbabwean coach said the club owed him terminal benefits.

Gundani's assistant, Muchina, said he was pained with the way the Nico management treated him after being loyal for a long time.

'These people are really cold-hearted. After using me for such a long time, they just discard me like a piece of garbage. Just imagine, they just phoned me and told me not to come to the ground. The least they could have done was to write me a letter,' he said.

'I was offered the post of assistant coach but now they do not want anything to do with me. I have been waiting for them to call me for a hearing since the suspension but that has not happened.'

Muchina said he decided to take the club to the Labour office for unfair dismissal and unpaid salary.

But Raditshego defended the management's move saying they followed the right channel in dealing with the coaches. He dismissed the duo's complaints.

Raditshego said the club paid Gundani his terminal benefits. He added that they did not have a contract with Muchina.

'It is their right to complain if they are not happy but I cannot believe that they have reported us to labour.

Muchina was suspended but we did not get a chance to give him a hearing due to commitments.

The only thing we had with him was a verbal agreement and we honoured it. We sacked the two for the benefit of the team,' he said. He said they could not keep people who are working against the growth of the team.