RIP Richard Henyekane

RICHARD Henyekane, the Free State Stars striker, died in a car accident on April 7. The former Golden Arrows and Mamelodi Sundowns striker was travelling with friends from a party in QwaQwa when they smashed into a truck in the early hours of the morning. All five occupants of the car died on impact. Henyekane started his career at Naughty Boys, and later played at Basotho Tigers before joining Premier United in 2003. He was part of the squad which played the second half of the season in the PSL after the club swapped their status with Hellenic. When Premier were relegated, he joined Golden Arrows where he spent seven seasons, scoring 35 goals in 119 matches. He joined Sundowns in 2010, and when the team set a record in the Nedbank Cup in 2012 as they beat Powerlines FC by 24-0, Henyekane scored five of the goals. He joined Free State Stars on loan from Sundowns in January 2014, with the move made permanent in July. Henyekane was first called up for international duty in 2009, but was left out of the Joel Santana’s squad for the 2009 Confederations Cup. He made his international debut in a 3–1 loss against Serbia on 12 August 2009, and eventually made nine appearances for the national team. In the 2013/14, Henyekane scored seven goals from 15 starts as he helped Ea Lla Koto escape relegation on the last day of the season. However, ‘Kimberley Express’ was struggling to find his scoring boots this season – he had failed to score for Stars in 17 appearances, including five as a substitute. Free State Stars defender Bokang Tlhone has described how his teammates pleaded with Henyekane to find form again as the team continued to fight relegation. Tlhone reveals that Stars’ players had a chat with Henyekane in the bus after the 1-0 loss to AmaZulu on April 4. “We were saying that he should be our main striker because the pressure has been mounting. We were pleading with him that he should be the Richard that helped the team last season,” Tlhone reveals. Sadly, Henyekane is gone and so are his scoring boots. On that fateful day, Tlhone and Henyekane were travelling back to Bethlehem from QwaQwa and Tlhone says he has many sleepless nights after what he saw at the accident scene. “Richard was like a brother to me and I spent most of the time with him off the field. And even on his last day I was with him when everything happened,” he says. “He drove my car so I was driving his. The exchange of cars was the first time that happened. We were driving behind them, and when we got closer to the scene, I didn’t think it was anything big. But when we got there it was very, very bad. “Richard was a very, very good guy in terms of accommodating everyone. Richard would help anyone at any time and it is sad we have lost him,”Tlhone says. Richard’s younger brother Joseph,died of an undisclosed illness in December.