Thidiela brothers promise to be more hands-on to preserve Leopards
Chair Tshifhiwa concedes they previously took eye off the ball
Image: Philip Maeta
Black Leopards chairperson Tshifhiwa Thidiela has promised that the club will be run differently as they look to survive relegation in the Motsepe Foundation Championship next season.
The Thidiela brothers Tshifhiwa, Rendani, Fulufhelo and Tendani bought the status of All Stars last week after the Leopards were relegated from the second-tier after finishing bottom of the NFD table. Tshifhiwa, who is now the chair of the club, said there will be a lot of changes to the side compared to how it was run in the previous years.
"Some of the things from our side need to change. We can't go and do things the same way because if we do that, we are going to get the same results," Tshifhiwa explained.
"It needs careful consideration and after that, we can be able to identify and say 'here are the changes that we are going to make'.
"The one major [thing] that we said we are going to do is we will need to leave some of our private businesses a bit and give the club more time and as a family, we need to be a bit more hands on to make sure that we can fix things before they go too far."
Tshifhiwa added that the reason they took longer to complete the buying of the status was that the family was divided because of the high costs of running the club and not getting returns on investment.
"The only reason we agreed to do it was because there are other families that are relying on this team, so the influence and the impact that the team has on the community is very big," he said.
"That's the major point where we were able to go and convince the other group or without necessary saying which group I fall under, but we came out collectively with the view that let's continue even though financially we are not getting it back, but it is something that we can sleep at night knowing that yes we've done a difference in the community."
Lidoda Duvha, as Black Leopards are affectionately known, enjoy a huge following in its home turf of Thohoyandou and parts of Gauteng.