EDITORIAL | Cash is queen, but MaMkhize’s envelope saga goes one step too far

There’s a new queen in the DStv Premiership and she is disbursing wads of cash to players attached to her team in what appears patent, if not crass, attempts at cheap publicity. Yes, the publicity from the videos of the incident has generated more heat than light. 

Royal AM boss Shauwn Mkhize and her son Andile Mpisane walked around the pitch distributing cash from an envelope to their players after a 2-1 win over Maritzburg United at Chatsworth Stadium.

It was a cringe-worthy exercise, with some players looking uncomfortable. The club bosses remained unfazed, however. The family duo of mom and son seem to have set themselves the task of disrupting the “boys’ club” at the helm of our local soccer. And that is not a bad thing. They seem to want to do things differently, challenge the status quo and push the envelope, literally. It is also true that Kaizer Motaung, Irvin Khoza and Patrice Motsepe, who lead the most successful teams in the Premier Soccer League (PSL), are not the standard bearers of everything. The status quo can, and should, be challenged. How this is done, though, is key.

The initial, unprecedented litigation against the PSL by MaMkhize and Mpisane, which ended with them buying the Premiership status of struggling Free State-based club Bloemfontein Celtic, should have been an indicator of what was to come. 

But the cash splash of this past weekend has left many aghast and some exhilarated.

A few asked, correctly, why should they not be free to use their money as they see fit in a free country?

Others criticised the duo as unprofessional people who used their money to demean the dignity of their players. While players theoretically have the right to object against being remunerated in the middle of a stadium with the whole country watching, their options, in reality, are limited because of the obvious employer-employee power imbalances. Many in society would be correct to be concerned about the tax implications of cash-based emoluments. On the surface, there is nothing wrong with paying people cash – as long as they’re not inconvenienced and all involved will declare their earnings.

The truth though is that we know of these cash earnings because they happened in public. Where these are done in private and the earnings are not declared, taxes don’t get paid – which means revenue that could have helped bring water, build schools or provide shelter for the weak and infirm is lost to the National Treasury. 

It is for this reason that cash payments are generally discouraged, and when people like MamMkhize and Mpisane, who ought to know better, misuse cash, they should be frowned upon.

PSL prosecutor Nande Becker told TimesLIVE on Monday: “I will only be able to make an assessment after I have looked at all the documentation.”

But already, by Tuesday afternoon, the situation had escalated – and the pair will be charged.

“I am charging Royal AM and various club officials,” said Becker, without going into the details of the charges and their seriousness.

At a general level, cash is known to be the source of many challenges in soccer and in society. Innumerable scandals involving bribery, including of match officials, have involved cash. Those involved in grand-scale corruption often use cash to score tenders from the government.

Given SA’s crime rate, it is also ill-advised to identify oneself as cash-flushed. Perhaps the club owners are able to insulate themselves from crime through private security, but what of the players who are recipients of the cash? The risk and strain on the players is needless.

Further, societal norms dictate that those with the means in any society are required to exercise some form of restraint in how they use their resources given how unequal societies are. The point is even most apt in the world’s most unequal society – SA – with a Gini coefficient of 63.

The self-promotion, besides being a security risk to the individuals involved, is in bad taste. The new queen of the premiership must behave like a queen. Her latest stunt is cringe-worthy and not to be countenanced.