Cape Town - The Newton Sport Agency, which represented long jump star Luvo Manyonga has described the banned athlete’s allegations of mismanaging his funds as baseless.
The agency has now instructed its attorneys to correspond with Manyonga to request him desist from making these “false allegations” and are considering the appropriate legal action.
This was after the country’s 2017 sportsman and sport star of the year told the Cape Times that the agency dropped him in a manner that he did not have potential anymore.
He claimed that the company booked him into a drug rehab without his consent where he was “treated like a prisoner”.
He said the government paid for his rehabilitation in Gqeberha but the money went to Newton’s account, not to the facility’s account.
“The agency has been scamming a lot of people's money and I remember the other time when they booked a rehab for me without consulting me in Gqeberha. The security guard came to me and said he had to take me somewhere and we drove around and I did not know where I was being taken to.
“We arrived at this beautiful house, it was then I found out that it's a rehab. I was treated like a prisoner at that rehab. They made me feel like I am dangerous to the society and the security would not speak about anything to me,” said Manyongo.
He said the only thing the company bought for him was a BMW worth R700 000, out of the millions he has made.
“When I asked (Lee Roy) Newton to invest my money in other companies he would brush the conversation off. He once had a problem with one of the athlete because they tried to expose him and he did not like that athlete. I later found out that he has houses in Zambia and has plenty of properties in the country and that is all through the athlete's money.”
Newton Sports Agency founder Lee Roy Newton has denied allegations of financial irregularities regarding Manyonga’s affairs.
“Newton Sports Agency is deeply disturbed by the allegations purported by its former client Luvo Manyonga to the Cape Times. Mr Manyonga was represented by Newton Sports Agency from 2016 to 2019 and during this time we have always been transparent and upfront with all the commercial contracts we negotiated and secured on his behalf.
“These renewed allegations follow from baseless allegations first made on Twitter in November last year, almost one year after we discontinued our business relationship with Mr Manyonga.
“At the time of the Twitter allegations, we had received credible information that Mr Manyonga’s had come under the control of a criminal element with whom Mr Manyonga had become ensnared. We remain deeply concerned for Mr Manyonga’s personal safety as well as his emotional and psychological well-being,” said Newton.
He continued: “Throughout the time that we represented Mr Manyonga, we consistently worked with him and his family to support him through his struggles, be it rehabilitation, accommodation or safety and security services etc. In addition, we always provided him with world class infrastructure, from travel to medical support, during his training competition periods.
“Newton Sports Agency has been representing professional athletes for the past 10 years and have never been accused of any financial impropriety in all these years. We are an IAAF(International Association of Athletics Federation)-accredited agency and manage all our clients across the continent with professionalism and integrity.”