How Gayton McKenzie’s son, Siwelele FC boss Calvyn Le’John, bought SuperSport United's status

Siwelele FC chairman Calvyn Le’John has revealed the steps they had to take to acquire the status of SuperSport United, and what it’ll take to sustain the club.

“It was through an auction. We put in our bid and luckily, we won,” explained Le’John during an interview with Marawa Sport Worldwide on Thursday.

“Eight or nine months ago, we were part of the Royal AM auction. We bid in both auctions that took place for Royal AM, and we lost both.”

When Le’John and his firm were announced as the new owners of SuperSport United — renaming the club and relocating it to Bloemfontein — an interesting discovery was made. It emerged that Le’John is the son of the Minister of Sports, Arts and Culture, Gayton McKenzie, and was using his maternal surname.

Since McKenzie’s political position doesn’t allow him to continue heading family businesses, Le’John was appointed as the new leader of the family’s business interests.

Le’John revealed on MSW that they have their “hands in many pies,” while their primary interest and focus remains mining.

“I don’t have R50 million lying around,” Le’John said. “I sold our properties on the coast, some properties in Sandton, to fund the project of buying SuperSport.

“To fund the liquidity of the team, I sold some shares to a consortium from one of the diamond mines in the North West for the sum of R90 million. That’s how things unfolded.”

Le’John refuted allegations that they used government connections to acquire the money to buy and run Siwelele.

“I saw a rumour that I got a tender of R70 million somewhere on Twitter, and that’s a blatant lie,” Le’John said.

“I don’t have any friends, associates, or family members that are doing any work in the city or in the Department of Sports, for that matter. I don’t do tenders. I tried, but seeing people getting arrested every three days is scary. I am in different businesses, so I don’t work with the state.”

Despite denying any ties to the club, McKenzie had said the family had put R400 million aside to build world-class facilities for the club. Le’John, however, said they’ll explore avenues for the club to generate its own income so that it becomes sustainable.

“We are going to run this club in a sustainable way. It needs to wash its own hands, even though we’ll put a million rand here and there to run the club,” Le’John said.

“The club does have sponsors, and it is healthy. It is still healthy. It’s still SuperSport United, after all.”

Siwelele is regarded by some as the rebirth of Bloemfontein Celtic, and Le’John explained why it was unreasonable to buy back the name from businessman Eddie Modise.

“The name Bloemfontein Celtic — I cannot buy a name for 10% of the club’s value. R5 million for a name? Personally, I can’t (do it),” Le’John added.