The Footballers’ Union of Zimbabwe (FUZ) is up in arms with Hwange regarding three players John Kapenya, Maxwell Chipunza and Simbarashe Jongwe over unpaid salaries and alleged unclear contracts that the players signed with the club.
FUZ secretary-general Paul Gundani was due to meet with Hwange secretary Burzil Dube last Friday in Bulawayo to try and resolve the impasse but the union says Dube did not turn up.
Gundani said the three players signed two-year contracts with Hwange at the beginning of 2011 which are due to expire on December 31, 2012, but have not received their salaries from the club since June last year.
However, he said the contracts were not clear on how much the players were supposed to receive from the club.
“I am here to avail myself to players who have pending cases with Hwange, that is John Kapenya, Maxwell Chipunza and Simbarashe Jongwe.
“When they signed, they were promised signing-on fees of $6 000 for two years to be paid in two instalments.
“They received the first instalments last year and then Hwange defaulted on the final instalment. Kapenya and the other players claim they have not received their wages since June 2011 but they do not have any letters of termination of their contracts.
“In the circumstances we are saying the clubs are manipulating the players for their own benefit. Our major concern is the football contracts are silent on remuneration and we are saying why make the player sign vague contracts which they do not understand,” Gundani told NewsDay Sport on Friday. The furore follows a letter that Kapenya wrote to FUZ on May 28 seeking assistance from the union to recoup his outstanding salaries which he never received since he was loaned to relegated Zimbabwe Saints in June last year by Hwange.
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Part of the letter dated May 28, 2012 reads: “I would like to appeal to the association to intervene in the recovery of my salary from Hwange Football Club. In June 2011, I was loaned to Zimbabwe Saints for six months and part of the agreement was that Hwange would continue to pay my salary. “However, the club failed to honour that agreement by stopping paying me in the same month of June when I temporarily moved to Zimbabwe Saints.”
