Motsepe Foundation Championship relegation-threatened Baroka FC have confirmed that they put head coach Bushy Moloi on a period of special leave amid poor results.

The TUT coach and his charges have hit a rough patch as of late, winning only two of their last ten matches, including one in the Nedbank Cup—leaving them in the relegation zone on the first national division table.

Moloi was moved from a head coach role to a co-coach with Stan Nkoane a week ago. Actually, he was redeployed as the technical advisor, which seemingly did not sit well with him. Hence, the management placed him on leave.

BUSHY MOLOI PLACED ON SICK LEAVE

The move by the club saw a raft of changes in the Bakgakga coaching staff as Nkoane stepped in as a head coach. Mathari Motupa and Job Maphutha will form part of the club’s new-look technical management team.  

“Coach Bushy is on sick leave, we put him on the leave for the time being, and coach Stan (Nkoane) will be in charge until coach Bushy comes back from the leave,” the club’s CEO Richard Mashabane told journalists.

“But so far, we are thinking of letting coach Stan to continue with the remaining games of the season, then we will take it from there. Maybe next season we will get another coach.

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“But it will depend on the performance of coach Stan, if he’s doing very well, why not keep him if the team is doing well.”

GOOD RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN MOLOI AND BAROKA FC

Mashabane put it clear that Moloi was given a football manager role at the team. And it is believed that he was unhappy with that decision, though he has insisted there is a good relationship between the two parties.

“There are no issues between us and coach Bushy. The issue was that the team was not collecting points, and we had to make some changes,” he said.

“Seeing coach Stan doing well at training and having a good relationship with the players. We thought why not give him a chance and change the head coach to be a football manager.”

The former Tshwane University of Technology FC head coach took over the reins after the departure of Vincent Kobola. He was in charge of 15 matches overall, winning just five, drawing three and losing seven.

The Limpopo outfit sits 10th on the table, with only 11 points that separate them to 16th Placed Black Leopards. They are just nine points in front of Tshakhuma Tsha Madzivhandila who are in position 15.

By Clifton Mabasa