Coach Seema fired by Sekhukhune United ahead of Mamelodi Sundowns Nedbank Cup showdown

Hours after Lehlohonolo Seema performed his media duties at Sekhukhune United’s Nedbank Cup press conference on Thursday, he was fired as the head coach.

Sekhukhune announced on Thursday evening that Seema was leaving the club with immediate effect.

The statement in part read: “In light of this development, the coaches Kaitano Tembo and Paulus Masehe will take on the responsibility of leading the team forward.

“The club thanks coach Seema for his dedication and contribution during his time with us.”

For several weeks, reports suggested that Sekhukhune’s management considered the option of dismissing Seema and hiring the former Orlando Pirates mentor Eric Tinkler. The latter was fired at Cape Town City two months ago.

Sekhukhune’s general manager Phineas Masisha has consistently dismissed the rumours regarding Seema and Tinkler.

He said the speculation around Seema was the efforts of people trying to stabilise the club.

Bloemfontein Celtic legend Seema had been doing well as Sekhukhune’s head coach, and he guided the team to a lofty fourth place, behind Mamelodi Sundowns, Orlando Pirates and Stellenbosch FC. They are level on points (31) with Stellenbosch.

The rumours of Seema’s pending dismal were surprising because the team produced a string of excellent performances, resulting in nine wins and four draws after 20 games. At this rate, Seema did not deserve to be fired.

Now that Sekhukhune have yielded the axe, it would seem their management bided their time because the team were not doing too badly.

However, after Wednesday night’s 2-1 defeat at Richards Bay, the management could point to back-to-back defeats, which rarely occurred this season.

Before the Richards Bay loss, the team suffered a 4-2 home defeat against Premiership pace-setters Mamelodi Sundowns.

This is the second time the Limpopo-based Sekhukhune axed Seema, after firing him towards the end of last season.

However, he was brought back to replace the German coach Peter Hyballa, who was at the club for only a few weeks during the pre-season.

There have been suggestions that the sacking was not necessarily about results, but Seema’s broken relationship with the club’s bigwigs.

The axing comes at a bad time because Sekhukhune are chasing their first-ever victory over Sundowns, their Nedbank Cup quarter-final opponents at the Lucas Moripe ‘Masterpieces’ Stadium on Saturday afternoon.

The vastly experienced Tembo and Masehe, who was at the helm when the club campaigned in the First Division, will take charge of Sekhukhune on Saturday.

Seema said on Thursday afternoon that his side have always expected to face tough competition at this stage of the Nedbank Cup, and that they were ready to go all the way against Sundowns.

“We are definitely in it to win it; we always go into cup competition wanting to win; we have gone into the finals once, so we want to repeat that or even do better than that,” Seema said.

“We are taking this game seriously; it will not be an easy game, but we have been preparing well.

“We knew when we were still going through our early rounds that sooner or later, we would be getting closer to the final, and it is said that in order for you to get there, you have to beat the best.”