Richards Bay set to query legitimacy of Ranga Chivaviro's contract

The forward was last week confirmed as a Kaizer Chiefs player, with the Soweto giants agreeing a transfer with parent club Marumo Gallants for a figure believed to be in the region of R5-million. 

But Richards Bay have claimed they signed him first on a pre-contract in January prior to Gallants chairman Abram Sello telling journalists the club in fact had a clause to trigger an option to keep the striker for one more year. 

SABC Sport has it on good authority that Richards Bay logged the agreement with Chivaviro at the PSL in April along with that of midfielder Lucky Mohomi as well as winger Thato Mohlamme and were set to officially register the contract from 1 July. 

The process to lodge the agreement between the two parties helps avoid any confusion regarding the player’s employment terms – but this has been further complicated by Chiefs confirming Chivaviro as their player. 

It’s understood Richards Bay are happy to concede defeat if the Dispute Resolution Chamber [DRC] can affirm that Gallants did indeed have an option, which was triggered before the end of the season and enabled them to sell to Chiefs. 

The club has claimed in several interviews with Ukhozi FM they were led to believe the player would be a free agent effective 30 June, hence eligible to put pen to paper on a pre-contract six months prior. 

Information gathered from several attorneys who deal with sports law and are familiar with how the DRC works, have told SABC Sport it is a misconduct for Chivaviro to have signed two contracts. 

And this is corroborated by PSL rules prohibiting players from “entering into more than one contract of employment covering the same period”, which can lead to the party in question being charged.  

The matter may very well be swept under the rug, eventually, if Richards Bay and Chiefs can agree on a compensation behind the scenes. 

But as things stand, the KwaZulu-Natal outfit are understood to be determined to ask for verification of the Gallants contract.

Efforts to get comments from Richards Bay proved futile as only club chairman Jomo Biyela is allowed to speak on the matter, with his last comment to Ukhozi being that “anyone who wants Ranga must speak to us”. 

This was before Chiefs announced him as one of six new signings last week, but whether they will be able to register him for the upcoming 2023/24 season remains a mystery at this stage.