The South African Football Association in the Eastern Cape (SAFA EC) has approved the sale of former Ezibeleni-based side Amavarara Football Club to the new owner, Akhona Pele, who will be keeping the name to save the brand.
The Chris Hani District outfit, which has been playing in the Eastern Cape ABC Motsepe League, will now relocate to the Joe Gqabi region and use Craven Stadium in Burgersdorp to play their home games, while Khwezi Naledi Stadium in Lady Grey will be an alternative home ground.
Amavarara were understood to be in a terrible state as their financial debt had gone beyond control, and the former owner, Lusapho Mzwakali, was desperate to hand over the club to new leadership.
The new owner of the team is a practicing attorney and businessman who will be one of the youngest chairperson in the province, said there will be no major changes in the team as they will on beef up the technical team with more personnel.
“No-one will be fired, we will keep the technical team because they did a great job with the team in the past season. We will only add and the announcement will come during the month. We are also keeping in touch with the former chairperson Lusapho Mzwakali, because of his experience he will learn from his guidance,” said the new owner.
Amavarara was founded in 1989 in Tshembeyi Village, Cacadu (formerly Lady Frere) under Emalahleni Local Municipality but moved to Ezibeleni after being promoted in the 2018/19 season to the ABC Motsepe League.
The team finished second in Stream A of the ABC Motsepe League with 28 points in 16 games last season and were involved in the ABC Motsepe Provincial Play-offs.
The move for Amavarara leaves Seven Stars FC as the only team from Chris Hani District campaigning in the ABC Motsepe League next season, but fans in the region are putting their hope in MK Academy or Xalanga Blues to do well in the SAB Provincial Play-offs and replace Amavarara.
