More details have emerged on what allegedly happened between Lehlohonolo Seema and Sekhukhune United as the coach is unlikely to be reinstated to his role as the club's head coach, the Siya crew has learnt.
Seema is currently on special leave as placed by the club last week, with MacDonald Makhubedu and Paulus Masehe in charge of the team on an interim basis.
Read: Seema's Job On The Line At Sekhukhune?
The decision to place Seema on special leave came as somewhat of a surprise as the team had been doing well and in fourth place on the standings at the time.
For the team's good run, Seema had also been named as the DStv Premiership Coach of the Month for February/March, and many in the fraternity were left wondering why he was suddenly removed from the Babina Noko bench, but insiders have since provided the details that led to the decision.
As confirmed by well-placed sources, Seema's removal from the technical bench had nothing to do with results as the club's hierarchy had been pleased with his progress since taking charge of the team in November.
Sign InThrough independent sources, the Siya crew has managed to see the copy of Seema's contract with Sekhukhune where among other points it was stated clearly that the mentor shouldn't find himself in a position where it would be deemed he has broken the club's code of conduct.
Siya sources close to Babina Noko have revealed that Seema's relationship with the club took a turn for the worse after a heated meeting with club CEO, Jonas Malatji on Monday last week.
Seema had come to the club's headquarters in Bedfordview, Gauteng for what was expected to be a normal meeting to discuss the remaining matches of the season and plans for next season before the unexpected happened.
"Let me first make it clear to you that the club's decision on Seema had nothing to do with the results. In fact, the club has been pleased with his progress as the leader of the team, and he was on track in terms of the targets as set out to him by the club on his appointment. So, no one should mention anything about the results when discussing the issue, the results had nothing to do with the decision to place him on special leave," said the source.
"The main issue here is that the coach broke the club's code of conduct in the manner he behaved towards the CEO. The CEO felt disrespected in that as the meeting was going on between him and the coach in the boardroom, there were some (harsh) words that were uttered before the coach stood up and stormed out of the room banging the door behind him on his way out even though the meeting wasn't over yet," the source said.
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"His (Seema's) argument was that he deserved to get a signing-on fee, which wasn't something on his contract, and he also demanded that the club got him accommodation. The club didn't object to any of these demands even though they were not part of the initial agreement but were expecting for the coach to at least wait until the end of the season to discuss. The team was left with only two games for the season but the way he was in a hurry made it difficult for the negotiations to proceed in the correct way. The final nail in the coffin was him leaving the CEO in the manner he did, and the club felt it was unacceptable. He is unlikely to get his position back," the source concluded.
As per the documents seen by this publication, there was no signing-on fee clause on the mentor's deal but he was only guaranteed 10% of the total prize money had he won the league, 5% if he won any of the official cup competitions, as well as another 5% if he led the team to a CAF Confederation Cup triumph.
When contacted for comment, Jonas Malatji declined to share the contents of their meeting and stated it was a private gathering between himself and Seema which should be respected.
Soccer Laduma contacted Seema for a comment, but the coach had not responded by the time this story was published.
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