By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Kaizer Chiefs are set to appear before the Premier Soccer League (PSL) Disciplinary Committee tomorrow for two separate cases.
Back in December, a mass Covid-19 outbreak at the club occurred, with no less than 52 members testing positive for the virus.
Chiefs wrote to the league, urging the postponement of the relevant fixtures for the sake of public safety, but the PSL took nearly three weeks to respond and then relied on an early pandemic resolution that virus cases couldn’t be used as a reason for postponements.
Soweto giants took matters into its own hands during that time and opted not to honour their fixtures against Cape Town City and Golden Arrows before returning to play Sekhukhune United 10 days later.
However they have landed in hot water for their game when returning to domestic action for naming to DStv Diski Challenge players on the bench in the 2-0 win over Sekhukhune United at FNB Stadium.
The matter had been previously taken off the DC’s roll after Chiefs had taken it to arbitration which ruled in their favour. The PSL however then also took the matter on review at the Gauteng South High Court. And according to PSL prosecutor Zola Majavu, the arbitration ruling was then set aside.
“Kaizer Chiefs will be appearing before the PSL DC on 17 May 2022… this is a continuation of the matter that was on the roll which I withdrew after the arbitrator’s award had found that Chiefs were justified in not fulfilling those fixtures due to an act of God with specific reference to the Covid situation.
“The PSL executive committee, as it was perfectly entitled to do so, also elected to challenge that outcome and took it on review,” said Majavu on Thursday.
“As a result, I decided not to proceed further with that case and to rather await the outcome of the review in the high court. I can now confirm that the review in the high court was finalised on 10 May 2022.
“That being the case I have decided to continue with the case which I had put in abeyance in terms of which Kaizer Chiefs must come before the DC and account for their non fulfilment of those fixtures.”
The games were however rescheduled and played with Chiefs losing both to Golden Arrows and Cape Town City.