Lolo’s dad feels let down by Ajax

Cecil Lolo’s father Clifford has expressed disappointment at Ajax Cape Town players not attending their late colleague’s funeral in Chebe village, Centane on Sunday.

Speaking for the first time since the funeral, Clifford said the family had carried the costs of the burial while Ajax claimed it forked out more than R50000 to assist.

The club’s communications manager Julian Bailey said the Cape Town-based PSL side, for whom Lolo played for more than five years, not only settled the funeral costs but also set up an education trust fund for Lolo’s three children.

Bailey added that Ajax had committed to pay a monthly stipend equivalent to Lolo’s salary to the family for “the next couple of months”.

But Clifford said: “The only contribution I know is that they paid for the coffin and transported the corpse from Cape Town to here .”

Lolo’s manager, Grant Niewenhuys, who Ajax say was the middleman between them and the Lolo family, was initially “not interested in answering any questions”.

However, he later said he could confirm the club had done what it had said for the Lolo family.

Clifford said his son’s passing was heartbreaking and he had largely ignored issues like who was expected to attend the funeral.

“I was disappointed that Ajax players did not attend but I decided not to allow it to get to my head,” he said.

“There was no explanation from Ajax.”

But Bailey said Ajax had given the Lolos a “lot of support”.

In a media statement the club said it was “disappointed that Cecil’s funeral is being used as a platform to advance political agendas”.

This was an apparent dig at MEC for sport Pemmy Majodina, who criticised the club at Lolo’s funeral.

Ajax players were not the only notable absentees on the day. No representatives from the Premier Soccer League (PSL) or South African Football Association (Safa) were present either.

Asked for an explanation PSL spokesman Luxolo September said: “The PSL attended the memorial service of the late Cecil Lolo in Cape Town and we also afforded Ajax players space to grieve by postponing two of the club’s fixtures.”

Safa president Danny Jordaan could not be reached for comment and no response had been received from Safa communications head Dominic Chimhavi to questions e-mailed to him at the time of writing.