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Sports Reporter
FORMER How Mine head coach Philani Mabhena has taken legal action against his former club over allegations of unfair dismissal.
According to sources, Mabhena engaged city lawyer Shepherd Chamunorwa of Calderwood, Bryce Hendrie and Partners to help him recover his dues.
Through his legal representative, Mabhena wrote a letter of demand to the Metallon Gold funded club highlighting that his dismissal last month was unwarranted and is claiming that How Mine breached their contract.
How Mine were given up to end of day yesterday to respond to the demand failure of which the former FC Platinum and Highlanders coach will take his matter to the Labour Court.
The sources said Mabhena was further agitated by the fact that How Mine did not pay him his salary for August. “Mabhena has approached a lawyer and as we speak How Mine are yet to respond to the letter of demand. The club has up to Monday (yesterday) to respond and you can call the chairman Mlondolozi Nkomo who will give you finer details.
“His contract was watertight and the club blundered because they had given him a target of 30 points from 20 games and when they fired him he had 24 points from 18 matches. It is against this background that he feels that How Mine broke the contract,” said the source.
After severing ties with Mabhena, How Mine promoted assistant coach Philani “Beefy” Ncube who went on to pick four points from a possible six, handing Chicken Inn a 1-2 defeat and playing to a goalless draw with Black Mambas. The Premiership new boys, How Mine FC had unveiled Mabhena as their head coach after agreeing a two-year performance based deal with the former Highlanders and FC Platinum assistant coach in February. The gold miners also retained Sheunesu Chaka who was a co-coach with Jeremiah Makota when they won promotion into the country’s elite league after clinching the Zifa Southern Region Division One Soccer League title last season.
Ncube came in as a second assistant.
Mabhena became the fourth coach to face the axe in the Premiership this year after Nesbert Saruchera (Black Rhinos), Saul Chaminuka (Buffaloes) and Friday Phiri (Tripple B) while Tennant Chilumba quit FC Platinum.
How Mine seem not to have been happy with Mabhena’s last eight matches where he only managed to pick up four points from a possible 24 and the points were garnered from beating league champions Dynamos 1-0 at Luveve Stadium on 6 July and the 1-1 draw to Triangle at the same venue on 20 June.
After beating Bulawayo giants Highlanders 2-1 at Barbourfields Stadium on 19 May, How Mine went on to lose 0-1 to Black Mambas at Morris Depot three days later, before another 0-1 defeat to Chicken Inn at Emagumeni on Africa Day. On 2 June, before a PSL two-week break, they had been dismissed 0-2 by Shabanie Mine at Maglas and on return that’s when they shared spoils with Triangle at Luveve before a 0-3 thumping by DeMbare in Harare in the first round of the season. They then beat the Glamour Boys in the return fixture in Bulawayo and lost two successive matches 1-2 to Triangle at Gibbo and 0-1 to Shabanie Mine at Luveve.
Online Reporter