Thandani Ntshumayelo’s agent‚ Tim Sukazi‚ says a “behavioural change” was noticed in the former Orlando Pirates player banned for testing positive for cocaine over the past nine months‚ including going Awol from training.
Sukazi‚ also a lawyer‚ said he is perplexed as to why the player and his legal representatives have missed a 21-day deadline to appeal the midfielder’s four-year ban and are now saying they will go the court route to overturn the sentence.
Speaking on pay-TV channel SuperSport’s Back Pages show on Monday night‚ Sukazi said Ntshumayelo (26) has been devastated by the ban and subsequent release from his contract at Pirates.
“I think he’s in dire straits‚” Sukazi said.
“What he needs now is to have proper advice. And he needs to instruct his lawyers properly and give them the proper information‚ so that they don’t end up barking up the wrong tree.
“Because once you start filing papers at the high court it becomes sub judice‚ and then it will be up to him and his lawyers to construct a case.
“The fact remains that if a person has gotten himself in this kind of a position‚ the sooner you come out clean‚ all the better.
“I think Thandani‚ from our side‚ we have known the boy and we can say without any fear of contradiction that his behaviour‚ unfortunately‚ in the last I would say eight or nine months‚ had changed.
“There were instances where he did not attend training‚ for example‚ and no-one would know his whereabouts.
“So after this thing has blown up like this people can put one and one together perhaps‚ and starting making an inference.”
Ntshumayelo tested positive for cocaine after a urine sample was taken in a random drugs test after Pirates’ match against Platinum Stars at Orlando Stadium on January 9.
He pleaded guilty in a Saids hearing in late August and was banned.
Sukazi said he remains the midfielder’s sports agent until instructed otherwise by Ntshumayelo‚ who has opted to take on Langa Attorneys as his legal representatives in this matter.
The player's lawyers have claimed in letters released to the press that Sukazi pressurised Ntshumayelo into pleading guilty‚ which the agent has denied.
Saids last week released a statement warning Ntshumayelo and his legal representatives about making “harmful and defamatory comments” in the media.
City Press published an excerpt of a letter written by Langa Attorneys that claimed Nthumayelo’s drugs test had been “prearranged weeks before the game of the 9th of January by a senior Orlando Pirates official and two officials of Saids”.
The attorneys have questioned the legitimacy of the laboratory that analysed Ntshumayelo’s sample at Free State University‚ which has been suspended by Saids.
The attorneys missed the 21-day deadline to appeal with Saids‚ but contradicted that deadline‚ claiming it should be 30 days.
They have said they intend to take the matter to the High Court.
“The starting position is that Ntshumayelo admitted guilt‚ and he did that under oath as well‚” Sukazi said.
“And then he went on to give a blow-by-blow account of when and where and how he used cocaine.
“His admission‚ and version of events‚ was later confirmed by a South African lab‚ and later a sports science lab in Qatar‚ which is a world-class lab used for Olympians and so forth.
“There might be a technicality in that the SA lab has been suspended. But people should know that suspension was effective from May 3 and Ntshumayelo’s samples were taken back in January.
“He was given 21 days to lodge his appeal with Saids. I think they [Ntshumayelo’s legal representatives] took the different route altogether that they were not going to do that.
“They are saying they have got 30 days to lodge an appeal. But the correspondence at our disposal shows you have 21 days from the August 16.
“So I don’t know what they are referring to. One cannot tell with absolute certainty why they have decided not to appeal.
“After deciding to go the technicality route‚ you would have thought‚ ‘You know what‚ don’t wait to appeal’.”
- TMG Digital
