Sithebe saga: Agent breaks silence on Kaizer Chiefs-bound midfielder's situation at AmaZulu FC

AmaZulu FC midfielder Siyethemba Sithebe's agent has broken his silence on the Bafana Bafana international's situation at the Durban-based club. 

Musa Sithebe - Siyethemba's uncle - is happy that his nephew is still allowed to train with Usuthu's first team after the club's management made it clear that he won't feature for the KwaZulu-Natal giants again after he signed a pre-contract with Kaizer Chiefs. 

At some point, AmaZulu head coach Benni McCarthy was hoping to use the dreadlocked attacking midfielder, but he has since acceded to Usuthu chairman and owner Sandile Zungu's directive that the player should not play for the team after he decided not to renew his deal with the club.

“Yes, that’s correct, Siyethemba has confirmed he is still training with the team," Musa told Sowetan. 

"At some stage, the coach wanted to include him in the [playing] squad but because of the issues, he could not.  I guess so, even though I share a different view on that.

Musa, who is a lawyer based in Durban, described Siyethemba's situation as sad, but he insisted that they had every right to open talks with Chiefs and reach an agreement after the player entered the final six months of his deal with Usuthu.

"At some stage, I really didn’t want to talk about the AmaZulu and Siyethemba issue in the media again, but it’s just that it’s a sad situation," he continued.

“Because players are allowed to negotiate on fairgrounds in respect of their new contracts, as he negotiated with Chiefs he also opened negotiations with AmaZulu. It was all open.

“So I’m disappointed with the situation and the manner in which it culminated." 

Prior to joining AmaZulu from then-National First Division side Mbombela United in July 2015, Sithebe was sidelined with an injury for six months 

“He’s had that situation before, even though in that instance it was because of an injury," Musa added.

“He had that when he joined AmaZulu from Mbombela United. And that was also a big step up in his career.”