Arthur Zwane comes out punching after Baxter allegations

Kaizer Chiefs coach Arthur Zwane has responded to an allegation of “back-stabbing” made by his predecessor and former boss, Stuart Baxter.           

Clips of the interview were played on radio this week. Baxter suggested that when he was sidelined with Covid-19 during an outbreak of the illness at Amakhosi last season his assistants, Zwane and Dillon Sheppard, undermined him by changing the line-up.

Chiefs had played an understrength team in a 3-1 win against Swallows FC. They missed two games in December 2020, saying they were understrength due to the Covid-19 outbreak. When they returned under Zwane and Sheppard, with Baxter isolating, Chiefs continued to field young players and beat Sekhukhune United 2-0, lost 1-0 to  Royal AM and won 2-0 against Maritzburg United.

Zwane did not pull punches in his response, going as far as to suggest last season’s goalkeeper coach, Baxter’s son Lee, undermined Zwane and Sheppard when they took over as caretakers at the end of the 2021/2022 campaign.

“I’m really disappointed. But to be quite honest, I don’t care,” he said at Chiefs’ media day at their Naturena headquarters on Thursday.

“When I listen to him [Baxter] carefully on radio, the problem started when he was sick.

“So if I am to break it down he’s actually exposing himself because that weekend when we played Swallows I was also sick, then coach ‘Sheppie’ [Sheppard] was too.

“When we were supposed to play the game against Cape Town City [which Chiefs did not honour], myself and coach Sheppie were still recovering,” Zwane said.

“When you look at the starting XI against Swallows, [Siphosake] Ntiya-Nyiya and Happy Mashiane were in, most of the youngsters played because we already had Covid cases.

“The next weekend that number increased. I was one of those who was sick. We had the Arrows game [which Chiefs did not honour]. 

“Some of the players who had to isolate for being in contact came back and then we had about 13 players.

“We had to come up with a starting XI and it couldn’t balance in terms of positions, so we had to take Njabulo Blom into the middle, start with Nkosingiphile Ngcobo and many other players who were not playing regularly,” he said.

“We trained for one day, then played and won against Sekhukhune. As other senior players were recovering, we lost 1-0 against Royal AM.

“We had players who were fitter and couldn’t bring in players who couldn’t manage 90 minutes. At some point we were told ‘You have to play this one’. How can you tell people ‘you have to play so and so’ when you are sitting at home sick?

“And then you come and say ‘The team was going in another direction and we came in and changed things’. No, those were the players who were available.”

Zwane was asked if there was any truth to conjecture that events during the 2020/2021 Caf Champions League, where Chiefs progressed through the semifinals under Zwane and Sheppard but lost 3-0 in the final against Al Ahly with Baxter at the helm, created tensions from the outset among the trio.

“No, I don’t think that could be the reason. We were all part of it — when we lost, we lost as a team. It was nothing about Arthur Zwane or Stuart Baxter or coach Sheppie.

“So if he [Baxter] can elaborate on when he says we ‘back-stabbed’ him — how? Because we thought we were working with someone we could learn from, someone who would be our mentor.

“And unfortunately we’re discussing this today. I’m a bit disappointed because people must just own up. If things did not work out, they did not work out. You  don’t have to shift the blame and point fingers.

“He’s the one who said he didn’t want the young players. And I don’t know why he was saying that,” Zwane said.

“But if he wants us to challenge him head-on then we will do it because they come here and disrespect us and expect us to keep quiet.”

Zwane ended with a parting shot at Lee Baxter. “His son back-stabbed us, because he was a problem this one.”

Chiefs will meet Richards Bay at Moses Mabhida Stadium in their fourth game of the 2022/2023 Premiership on Saturday.