Panyaza Lesufi, the Premier of Gauteng, has disclosed that he personally signed Monnapule Saleng to a contract with Swallows. As a result of his closeness to Brandon Truter, Lesufi feels conflicted over which team to back.
This weekend at Loftus Versfeld will play host to the Nedbank Cup final between Orlando Pirates and Sekhukhune United. Heavy K will serve as the main attraction for this occasion.
The Premier has recently announced in briefings that the Gauteng government is aiming to spend heavily on sports and has vowed to secure all big sporting events that are possible, beginning with Bafana Bafana and major cup finals for the future.
But before the last game of the 2022–2023 domestic season, he revealed how he signed Saleng, who has become one of the most prominent personalities in domestic football. Saleng is now a contender for major honors and one of the leading contributors for goals in the league this season.
Ahead of the Nedbank Cup final Lesufi said, “Pirates have been good to a team that I support dearly, Pirates have the Saleng we never had in that team,”
“It warms my heart to see that he is competing with other players for Player of the Season. When I went to Pirates to inquire about Saleng, Floyd [Mbele], who was working there at the time, actually questioned me and asked, “Who are you looking for?” When I stated “Saleng,” he responded by asking, “Who is that?! ”
“Because they had just brought him in from Free State Stars at the time, and the technical team was not sure [if they were going to use him], and they said ‘no, no, no – allow us to take him to train before anything else, and then we’ll decide if we release him’.”
“I patiently awaited that call and it arrived, they were camping outside of Gauteng and that’s when they called and said ‘Come and take your Saleng’, I personally drove to pick up my Saleng and it isn’t a policy of the club that I aid to make arrangements for accommodation but I myself did since I knew he was a gem. ”
“And personally I arranged transportation to take him to training and back, so seeing him now as nearly a top goalscorer and for him to be a candidate for Footballer and Midfielder of the Season, it’s wonderful – I’ve got stories on both sides,” Lesufi said.
With ‘Brakkies,’ who was fired by the Dube Birds and AmaZulu over the course of the previous two seasons, he was given another chance with Sekhukhune, who were in 15th place upon his arrival but now ended inside the top-eight, with a CAF Confederation Cup football and potentially 90 minutes away from a historic victory in the domestic cup competition.
“I met coach Truter and it wasn’t necessary for me to even wait for 15 minutes to be sure that this was an excellent coach and encourage him to come to Johannesburg,” Lesufi said of wooing him towards the club where he won the title in the second-tier competition.
“So to see him in the final is an amazing moment, but tomorrow I want to see the two teams, but I have a very very soft spot for coach Truter,” he said,” Let the squad with the best players win.”
The match between the Soweto Giants and Babina Noko will take place in Tshwane at 18:00 on Saturday afternoon.
