PROMINENT Kaizer Chiefs supporter Saddam Maake says the Amakhosi fans are happy with their club’s signings, including the Zimbabwe duo of Mitchell Katsvairo and Edmore Chirambadare, who were unveiled on Monday.

The acquisition of the former Chicken Inn players has sparked a wave of jokes from the Chiefs’ rivals who have revived their claims that the Amakhosi were getting cheap players from Zimbabwe.

The jokes insinuate that Chiefs buy one player and get another one for free from this country.

Chiefs unveiled eight new additions to the squad for the 2016-17 season on Monday, including Ramahlwe Mphahlele, Lewis Macha, Keagan Buchanan, Sibusiso Khumalo, Enocent Mkhabela and Emmanuel Letlotlo, and Motaung said more were on their way.

On Wednesday, Motaung rubbished suggestions that Chiefs get “freebies” in Zimbabwe when they sign foreign players.

Motaung pointed to players like Willard Katsande and Knowledge Musona as a means of downplaying the joke.

“If I go to Zim there is nothing for mahala and the good thing about Zim is that since we have gone there, give me any flop that we have signed from Zim and that has been a flop, flop, flop,” he said.

“Obviously some players don’t make it because of challenges.

“But every team in Zimbabwe now has offices and we spend millions in Zimbabwe for your own information. In Zimbabwe they now use US (United States) dollars. You can imagine the dollar to a rand now.

“Sometimes we don’t disclose figures because both clubs will have agreed for certain reasons not to disclose the price, but we buy. We spend millions, there is nothing for mahala . . . the only player that we sold in South Africa or in Africa of late was Musona.

“When I brought him here they said ‘buy one, get two free’, yet when we sold him to Germany people were angry. Look at the national team of Zimbabwe; they are the only ones that have qualified for the AFCON in this region, all of us are out.”

And Motaung received support from one of Chiefs’ biggest fans.

“I’ve been a Chiefs supporter for 46 years now, I know everything that is happening there. People said the same things about the likes of Musona when we signed them, hey they are not quality, they are not stars, they are from Zimbabwe blah, blah,” he told KickOff.com.

“Even our current PSL Footballer of the Season (Khama Billiat), where does he come from? Even him, he was an unknown and not a star when he arrived here.

“We don’t need stars or big-name players, we need players that have hunger to succeed, committed players who will respect the jersey. Others say we don’t sign quality, forgetting that we don’t have quality in South Africa.

“That’s why our national team don’t qualify for anything, because we just don’t have quality strikers here at home.”

Maake, who is a well-respected sports fanatic, says Amakhosi fans understand the difficulties the club management have to go through every time they try to get a player.

“The club wants Vilakazi, Morena, Molangoane and (Evans) Rusike but we can’t get them, teams don’t want to sell to us. As supporters we will support whoever Chiefs gets, our job is to support the team,” he continues.

“People say Chiefs don’t want to pay but who beat Sundowns who are known as ‘Blessers’ of South African football for Ramahlwe Mphahlele? It’s Chiefs!

“Sundowns couldn’t pay what he was asking for.

“All in all, as Kaizer Chiefs supporters we say we are very happy with our new players.” — Sports Reporter/Kick-Off