Gale Ngakane
9 December 2008
Hard times have definitely befallen TAFIC and with the club's friends getting fewer and fewer.
Machimenyenga or Undipe Ndikupe are in serious financial trouble and the their screaming fans in red t-shirts have left in droves.
Pleas for help from club officials have fallen on deaf ears and last weekend, the teams nearly failed to honour the game against Police XI in Lobatse.
Traumatised chairman, Daniel Mbili was a stammering man yesterday when he spoke about the club's problems. "We had absolutely nothing. Not even money for something to eat on the way to Lobatse, let alone for transport. We faced the prospect of not honouring a game for the first time since the team started playing in the top division."
A Good Samaritan in the form of a Zimbabwean businessman operating a steel fabrication and structural engineering company called Sinkshaft Explore at Francistown's Light Industrial Site saved the situation and financed the trip to Lobatse. Cephas Mhuri who set up camp in Francistown about five years ago was the TAFIC saviour over the weekend after he was approached by Mbili.
"We were literally at the end of our wits and promised him that we will do all in our power to see that he gets the necessary mileage if he helps us at least just to reach our destination. Otherwise we were in danger of forfeiting points," said Mbili. Mhuri offered the team P5,500, which was only sufficient for transporting the players to Lobatse where they beat the Jungle Kings 2-0. "May be that money was our lucky charm. Imagine the other week we were thrashed 4-0 by BDF XI. Our players then were completely demoralised by our situation," a temporarily relieved Mbili said. Mhuri told Mmegi Sport that he was happy to have helped the team that was in distress. "There is this guy who came to our workshop at Light Industrial.
He is a friend of mine and he told me they were in trouble and that they did not have money to transport players to a game in Lobatse. I helped them with P5,500," said Mhuri in reference to Mbili. Mhuri, whose company does jobs for government, the private sector and individuals said he was willing to help again provided the team gave his company some mileage.
"I am looking at buying them a kit and I would want them to put the name of my company on the kit," he said. As for the myriads of fans who follow TAFIC like faithful disciples, they are nowhere to be seen.
"We have been telling people for sometime now that we are in financial difficulties and there is no response. All they (fans) are good at is shout and when the going gets tough, they disappear," said Mbili.
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