The story that Zimbabwean football legend Peter Ndlovu, who is South Africa’s Mamelodi Sundowns team manager, missed out on a US$120 000 Sakunda Holdings house gift after demanding US$6000 fee to attend a sponsorship unveiling for Highlanders and Dynamos last month is untrue.
Organisers of the sponsorship say Ndlovu was invited, but could not travel from Pretoria to Harare due his busy club schedule, not because of any payment that he demanded.
There was also no condition on the sponsors’ side; they didn’t promise a house of condition of appearance.
Since the story appeared in the media yesterday, there have been talks between Ndlovu and sponsors behind the scenes to correct what they deemed to be a rather needlessly unfounded and malicious story.
Sakunda, a diversified company, last month unveiled an US$5,3 million sponsorship for the country’s two biggest football clubs which are struggling financially.
It gave the late football great George Shaya a house worth US$120 000 and planned to also give Ndlovu the same gift.
Sakunda also gave houses worth US$90 000 each to Highlanders and Dynamos legends Madinda Ndlovu and Moses Chunga respectively whose blazing performances set the domestic league on fire in the mid 1980s.
Ndlovu, the first and longest- serving African player in the English Premier League, is widely regarded as the best Zimbabwean player of all time.
He played for Coventry, Birmingham, Sheffield and Huddersfied in England.
In Zimbabwe, he played for Highlanders, and Sundowns in SA.
Newshawks
