PREMIER Soccer League club Caps United forward Phineas Bamusi might have played his last match for Caps United at the close of last season, after he was involved in a heated verbal exchange with club co-owner Nhamo Tutisani over outstanding salaries, which culminated in the two agreeing to part ways.
BY TAWANDA TAFIRENYIKA
Bamusi was part of an agigated group of Caps United players who besieged Tutisani’s offices yesterday demanding the payment of outstanding salaries.
The players are reportedly owed two months salaries.
They accused Tutisani of withholding a substantial amount reported to be around $433 000 meant for their salaries which came from NetOne recently.
In an audio that went viral yesterday, Bamusi dared Tutisani to sack him and claimed the businessman did not have the power to jettison him from the club.
Caps United new signing, Innocent Muchaneka, also among the demonstrators, made known his desire to leave the club.
In the audio, Tutisani was heard promising Bamusi that he would never play for Caps again.
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Bamusi told him that he wanted his money and clearance to leave the club.
The players mocked Tutisani that he neither had the power to fire Bamusi nor could he influence team selection.
Tutisani sounded agitated and boasted that the players were wasting their time as he was not going to pay them.
“Mafambira mahara (You have come here for nothing). Go to court,” he told the players, to which the players responded: “Kucourt kwei? Hakuna mari, mari yedu irikuCaps (To go to court for what? Our money is at Caps United).”
But an adamant Tutisani replied: “Handisikuda kukuonai (I don’t want to see you here).”
Bamusi drew Tutisani’s vitriol when he suggested that the businessman was not rich enough to own a football club “Moda kunzi mune mateam musina mari yacho (You want people to say you own a team when you can’t to pay,” to which he responded: “Usataure rough (Don’t speak nonsense).
“Tatadza kubhadhara. Ukatadza kubhadhara rent unodzingwa (We have failed to pay, if you fail to pay rent you will be kicked out).”
Bamusi then dared Tutisani to fire him.
“Chitidzingai (fire us), fire me if you have the power. You are not the one who brought me here you can’t get rid of me,” he challenged the club co-owner.
Tutisani promised to pay Bamusi everything that the club owed him before he issues him with his clearance so that he could move on.
“Go to your bank right now, your money will be deposited and I will also give you your clearance. I have lost respect for you,” a charged Tutisani bellowed.
But an uncaring Bamusi shot back: “Even me, I don’t respect you. I don’t even care.”
Contacted for comment, Tutisani said he was disappointed by the players’ behaviour.
He said every institution was facing the same challenges due to the COVID-19-induced lockdown and said as a club, they did not condone the players’ conduct.
“We had extended an invitation to the players through the captain with a view to look into their concerns. We had a list which we wanted to follow as we sought to pay them and I had spoken to the captain in the morning, but I was surprised they came to gather at my private premises. This demonstration is illegal. We are going to pay them according to the programme we had already designed. I am surprised by this kind of behaviour,” Tutisani said.
About 14 players had gathered at Tutisani’s offices, among them John Zhuwawo, Kudzi Nyamupfukudza and Ronald Chitiyo.
Last week, Caps United gave players and officials maize meal, probably to silence them over the delay in salaries.
