Mapeza reveals more details on his TTM exit, dismisses claims by Mulaudzi

Norman Mapeza has revealed more details on his pre-mature exit at South African side TTM, accusing the club hierarchy of not being honest.

Mapeza spent a few days with the team but did not take charge of any training session. He also did not sign any contract during his short stay there.

In an interview with The Herald, the former Warriors coach dismissed claims by chairman Lawrence Mulaudzi that he left South Africa without notice.

“We had a meeting with the club president (Lawrence Mulaudzi) and the CEO, the president was also concerned by the huge number of players at training and wanted to know what was happening,” he said.

“I told him that I had been told that there were 27 players by the CEO (Sello Chokoe) and we would get some five, or so, more players from Orlando Pirates but the CEO flatly denied that and said he never told me anything like that.

“That’s the first time I picked out that we were heading for problems because I come from a background where I stand by every word that I say and, when the person who is supposed to be your immediate boss, starts disputing some of the things he told you, then it’s not a good environment.

“I have to make it clear that, even before I left Harare for South Africa, I had this feeling that things would not work out as well as we had hoped, I don’t know why I was feeling like that but that is the truth and, sadly, that is what happened.’’

The gaffer also said that it was Chokoe who ordered him, along with his assistant Daniel Vheremu, to be barred from using his hotel room until they produced police clearances.

“The next thing, a technical director (who is now the team coach) was brought in and I wasn’t told anything about that and had to ask what was happening because if you are a technical crew, you work as a team and you need to trust each other.

“Things were not just going according to what we had expected and matters came to a head when we arrived at the hotel, where we were staying, and we were told that an instruction had been left that we should not gain access into our rooms unless we produced police clearances.

“Maybe, the CEO was sure that we had not satisfied all the Covid-19 requirements, when we came to South Africa, like maybe we had jumped the border, and wanted to try and use that against us.

“He didn’t know that we had fulfilled every step but you could tell that things were not what they used to be and we tried to get hold of him but his mobile phone was off.

“Since we had our clothes, and other stuff, in our rooms, we asked if we could take them out and we ended up putting them in (Washington) Arubi’s car and that’s when we decided to go to Johannesburg and later to come back home,” he added.

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