AS eThekwini soccer lovers are graced with the return of Durban City Football Club, the new name of Maritzburg United FC (MUFC), their counterparts in Msunduzi have lost their oldest professional team.
The Maritzburg team has revived the name of the team that was dissolved in the late ’80s.
Disagreements with the Msunduzi Municipality over the usage of Pietermaritzburg soccer fields drove the team to throw in the towel and move permanently to Durban, also leaving behind its name linking it to the KwaZulu-Natal capital city.
Chairperson of the team now named Durban City FC 2024 Farook Kadodia confirmed the demise of MUFC.
Durban City FC was formed by Norman Elliot in 1958 and was dissolved in 1988.
“We relocated to Durban because we have no Harry Gwala Stadium,” said Kadodia.
After being relegated from PSL last year, Maritzburg lost its R27 million seasonal grant from the municipality and Harry Gwala Stadium as its home ground. The money and the stadium were diverted to Royal AM FC, owned by wealthy tenderpreneur and TV personality Shauwn Mkhize.
The former “Team of Choice” had long been at loggerheads with the municipality and Royal AM over sharing the stadium. This led to MUFC being forced to occasionally use the Sugar Ray stadium in Clermont, Pinetown, as its training ground and Chatsworth Stadium, north of Durban, for its home games.
In August last year, Royal AM general manager Richard Makhoba sent a letter to the municipality declaring that his team did not want to share Harry Gwala with MUFC as “the Harry Gwala facilities is solely for the Royal AM football club”.
On September 4, 2023, the municipality told Kadodia his team was no longer allowed at the stadium. The city also reneged on its promise to prepare local Woodburn or Northdale stadiums for MUFC.
Kadodia said he was still finalising the relocation, but “Durban City will be based in Chatsworth”.
“Maritzburg United is gone and you will never hear of the name again. If we don’t have a stadium, we cannot plan anything in Pietermaritzburg,” said Kadodia.
Durban City FC senior official Petros Dlamini said it had become obvious MUFC was no longer welcomed at Harry Gwala, its former home stadium.
“For the whole of last season, it played without any move to allow it to play at any stadium in Pietermaritzburg, including Harry Gwala,” he said.
He said MUFC was the only team not allowed to use Harry Gwala.
“Challenging that was impossible because it was not clear who exactly did not want us to use Harry Gwala,” said Dlamini.
Waiting for a resolution was costing the team money, he said.
Dlamini said the team spent R70 000 when it had to travel to Durban to play a home game, which it should have played in Pietermaritzburg. He said the expenses were for transporting players from and to Pietermaritzburg and for their accommodation.
“We will now rent accommodation for the players, which is going to be much cheaper than travelling between Durban and Pietermaritzburg,” said Dlamini.
He said Kadodia was emotionally traumatised by the circumstances that led to the relocation of the team.
“We are still seeking answers as to what we did wrong so we can apologise,” said Dlamini.
He said the Elliott family gave Kododia the right to use the old team name at no charge, and there was a hope that in the future the family would consider buying shares.
Dlamini said there were good memories of the years the team spent in Pietermaritzburg. He said although Maritzburg did not have many supporters, local soccer fans, irrespective of which team they supported, would fill Harry Gwala Stadium to support the team.
“Which was why we had to play matches at night, which was not common in the city before. We brought big teams such as Mamelodi Sundowns to Harry Gwala. There would be player poachers who come to poach from Maritzburg,” he said.
Dlamini also commended Msunduzi Municipality’s role in growing Maritzburg.
“It is not like they did not do good things for us. Things started to go bad after the Royal AM showed interest in coming to Harry Gwala,” said Dlamini.
Msunduzi Municipality spokesperson Ntobeko Mkhize described MUFC’s departure as the a loss for the city and “it was unfortunate because the local team had a significant role the community of bringing pride and excitement to our city.
“We wish the club all the best in their new home and continued success in their future endeavours,” said Mkhize.
“Msunduzi Municipality remains committed to supporting and nurturing local talent and sports development within our city.
“The Municipality will continue engaging with relevant stakeholders and work towards the upgrading of the local stadiums such as Northdale and Wadley (stadiums),” Mkhize.