After Cape Town sports fans were shocked with the sudden departure of Julius Dube days after leading Zizwe United to the ABC Motsepe League Western Cape triumph, the club has released a detailed press statement detailing their side of the story.
The news came at a critical moment as Zizwe will fight for a spot in the GladAfrica Championships at the national playoffs in Rustenburg in early June. This publication will be making attempts to get Dube to give his side of the bargain, and will be posted in full as soon as possible. Below is the full unedited statement from the club:
“After the shocking departure of Mr Dube, the Club wishes to state the following: Indeed, it is one of the unprecedented occurrences where a team would part ways with the head coach at a very critical moment of the season. As some of the followers of Zizwe United FC would recall, we went to the National Play-offs with him twice already.
The first Play-offs were held in East London. The second Play-offs were held in Vaal-Triangle, Gauteng. Sadly, it is a well-known fact that Zizwe United FC was unsuccessful on both occasions.
It is our standard practice that the Club and Mr Dube would enter into bonus negotiations and sign an agreement prior to the playoffs.
On the 10th May 2022, unlike the previous occasions, Mr Dube came to the management meeting with two sets of contracts already typed and ready to be signed by the management. The contents of those two contracts will be discussed briefly hereunder and the full details thereof will be available to the members of the media upon request at any moment in order for our supporters to have insight of the said documents and leave the realm of speculations on this issue.
The First Contract which relates to his bonus if the Club gains promotion:-
In his first contract, Mr Dube demanded an amount of R350 000.00 (Three Hundred and Fifty Thousand Rand) irrespective of the price won by the Club and the same would be payable within fourteen days of gaining promotion. He appreciated the fact that an amount of R1 million will be given to the winner of the finals and R500 000.00 (Five Hundred Thousand Rand) will be given to runners up. Mr Dube initially demanded this amount irrespective of the amount won by the Club.
We engaged each other for days and at least reached an agreement as far as the first contract (bonus) is concerned.
Second Contract:
Mr Dube proposed that the Club conclude what purport to be a pre contract of employment in the event the Club gains promotion to the Glad Africa Championship. Suffice to say that this contract too contained numerous demands with exorbitant figures and amounts. The Club came with a counter proposal to his contract and suggested that both parties should agree that “in the event that the Club gains promotion to the Glad Africa Championship, he will be employed as the Head Coach but the terms thereof shall be discussed after the play offs and same would be reduced in writing”. Mr Dube labeled the proposed arrangement as a blank envelope and was adamant that the Club should sign the purported pre contract before we go to the national play offs.
He refused to suspend the discussions pertaining to the said contract. This hurdle resulted in a series of meetings with him to consider his position but all attempts were in vein. On our last attempt, the Club met with Mr Dube to find out if he had considered his position and he indicated that “he was not happy with the decision and the Club should sack him”. However, the Club requested him to reconsider his position and come back to the Club, but unfortunately, he could not.
In the light of the above we had no other options available but to accept that Mr Dube could not be part of the Club as the parties were far apart from each other, insofar as the pre contract is concerned.
The Club wishes to thank him for his contribution throughout the season and wish him well in his future endeavours.
We wish to concentrate on the up-coming National Plays-Offs and leave that aspect as water under the bridge.”
