Ewert Nene
One of the most influential figures in the formation of Kaizer Chiefs was murdered before he could see the club become a giant of South African football.
August 10 will mark exactly 44 years since the flamboyant Kaizer Chiefs team manager Ewert Nene was brutally stabbed to death in the Ekurhuleni township of KwaThema on his way to sign Teenage Dladla for the AmaKhosi. Affectionately known as ‘ The Lip’ because of his gift of the gab, legend has it that Nene could convince a lion out of making a meal of him! He was blessed with an uncanny ability to spot a star and was behind the early Chiefs talent identification of skilful players. KICK OFF’s Thomas Kwenaite chats to the last person to see Nene alive, Jan ‘Malombo’ Lechaba, and takes a nostalgic trip down memory lane to an era when Nene was considered the ultimate motormouth, long before Abdul Bhamjee was to assume that role a decade later.
Death has an unwelcome way of sneaking in uninvited and it does not matter who you are, it can strike with the same devastating effect. Except with the Kaizer Chiefs team manager Ewert Nene, it was so tragic and such a great loss for football.
On that fateful night in August 1976, the life of one so colourful, a man described as someone born far ahead of his time, someone who loved football passionately and indeed life itself, was senselessly killed while on a mission to recruit another player for his beloved AmaKhosi.
The man who accompanied the larger-than-life Nene that cold night,
Jan ‘Malombo’ Lechaba, who had also incidentally been recruited by the self-same Nene only a few weeks previously from Pretoria Callies, recalls the events that led up to the tragedy.
Attired in a multi-coloured grey and maroon scarf, dark tracksuit pants and the famous Mamelodi Sundowns canary yellow top, Lechaba looked up to the heavens as if seeking divine intervention when describing those tragic events, and then momentarily closed his eyes, with pain still etched deeply in his face.
“I sometimes ask myself where Kaizer Chiefs would be as a brand today if Nene was still alive,” Lechaba says.
“In my view, Nene was born ahead of his time. He was a self-made man, a natural born leader and a marketeer par excellence.”
Getting expelled by Orlando Pirates
Nene had been expelled as team manager at Orlando Pirates together with star players Thomas ‘Zero’ Johnson, Ratha Mokgoatleng and Edward ‘Msomi’ Khoza after the trio had gone to feature as guest players for a team in Botswana without seeking permission.
And it so happened that Kaizer Motaung returned from Atlanta Chiefs in the United States, where he had just been voted ‘Rookie of the Year’, at exactly that turbulent period in the history of Pirates and was not impressed by the expulsion of his friends.
Being a loyal Buccaneer, he was inwardly seething, yet gracefully accepted the decision of management. He, however, requested permission from Pirates to stage a series of friendly games under the Kaizer
XI banner, and asked whether he could utilize the suspended trio.
Permission was granted and the Kaizer XI show hit the road across the country and with Nene, Motaung’s father Ceyland,
Gilbert Sekhabi and China
Ngema, among others, in the forefront.
The Kaizer XI played to packed crowds, who were curious about the new boys on the block, and it was Nene whose natural skill to identify talent who was responsible for the recruitment of players like Joseph ‘Banks’ Setlhodi, Pule ‘Ace’ Ntsoelengoe, Ingle Singh, Vincent Julius, Jackie Masike, Elkim Khumalo.
The team grew to the extend that it inevitably morphed into Kaizer Chiefs when the National Professional Soccer League was founded in 1970.
“Nene was passionately driven by a desire to turn Chiefs into a formidable force more powerful than Pirates,” says Lechaba. “But he also wanted Chiefs to do things differently. He required his players to dress differently and to be fashion conscious.
“Above all, he wanted Chiefs to play differently and to forge its own style and identity. Nene advocated for us to play sexy football back in the 1970s.
“In those days, people laboured under the nationalist yoke of Apartheid and townships were a breeding ground for violence. It was the only way that people knew how to articulate their frustrations and grievances. Inevitably violence spilled onto football fields and once in a while, a riot would break out at the stadium.”
The fateful day in August 1976
A peaceful man who hailed from the tranquil and rolling hills of KwaZulu-Natal, Nene was appalled by the internecine violence. He wanted to use Chiefs as a vehicle for change and become the epitome of love and peace, according to Lechaba.
“I arrived at Chiefs during the outbreak of the June 16 student riots after signing from Pretoria Callies and he accommodated me at his house in Diepkloof,” Lechaba recalls.
“The day he was killed, he was supposed to have been accompanied to KwaThema by Kaizer Motaung.
“They had made prior arrangements to travel together but after the day’s training session, ‘Chincha’ [Motaung] was still in the shower when Nene impatiently ordered me to come with him instead as he felt that Kaizer was “delaying” him.
“We arrived in KwaThema and although we knew the street where Teenage [Dladla] lived, we did not know the house number. We therefore asked a group of boys who pointed out the house to us.
“There was a kombi parked outside the house. Nene parked his own car a short distance from the kombi and sent a boy to go inside the house and to call Teenage.
“Unbeknown to us, members of Pilkington United Brothers [Dladla’s then team] were inside the house. When the boy notified the household that two men who were sitting in a car bearing Johannesburg registration number plates were asking for Teenage, they all rushed out of the house.
“The boy pointed at us in the car and I immediately sensed trouble. They appeared to have been armed with machetes and some were brandished knobkieries. From their agitated demeanour, we knew we had bought it and tried to get out of the car.
“There was no time to argue and we split. Nene ran in one direction, while I dashed down the street in the opposite direction. The group that chased me
“NENE WAS PASSIONATELY DRIVEN BY A DESIRE TO TURN CHIEFS INTO A FORMIDABLE FORCE MORE POWERFUL THAN PIRATES.”
hurled expletives at me and ordered me to stop.
“But I kept opening up the gap between myself and the chasing pack and could hear one of them angrily remark: ‘iya gijima le nja’ (the dog can run).
“I didn’t know my surroundings around KwaThema well enough and simply headed towards the general direction of where I assumed the local police station would be located.
“At the charge office I explained what had transpired. Some of the cops knew Nene very well. They ordered me into a police van, and we dashed back to Teenage’s home and we found Nene’s car still stationery where we had parked it.”
Lechaba says after looking for the Kaizer Chiefs manager, there was simply no sign of Nene.
“But news travel fast in a township and we soon learned that Nene had been stabbed multiple times and had been rushed to the local hospital.
“We made another desperate dash to the hospital but sadly, we discovered on arrival that he had died. The tragedy marked the end of an era about a man that had revolutionized local football with his gift of the gab.”
‘I needed counselling’
Lechaba says he recalls how frustratingly painful, sad and confusing it had been in the Chiefs camp after Nene had been killed.
“I needed counselling and at that juncture, my family, friends, and teammates also played a huge role in helping me come to terms with the tragedy.
“It must also be mentioned that the passing of Nene occurred just a few weeks after Chiefs captain Ariel ‘Pro’ Kgongoane, then a school teacher, had also been killed on the first day of the outbreak of the student riots on June 16 when police opened fire.
“Teenage feared for his life and never wanted to play for Pilkington United Brothers again. In a sense, I guess in his own way he wanted to honour Nene, who had died trying to recruit him for Chiefs.
“But there was understandably anger, frustration, rejection, confusion, and a deep sense of loss with some players blaming Teenage for the tragic passing of Nene. However, others felt that it was not his fault and he should be allowed to join the team.
“The first day Teenage joined us at training you could feel the tension. But the minute we started playing, he was so mesmerizing that he quickly won everybody over, and he was embraced and accepted into the fold.
“I said Nene was a trendsetter. I wonder if people still recall that a year before I joined Chiefs during 1975, he had brought Brazilian 1970 World Cup winning star Jairzinho to South Africa, where he became a guest player for Chiefs!”
The beginning of‘Black Magic’
Nene was revered and reviled in equal measure. Legend has it that prior to the start of a crucial NPSL league match against then Zulu Royals, Nene led the Kaizer Chiefs team onto the field at a
“THE DAY HE WAS KILLED, HE WAS SUPPOSED TO HAVE BEEN ACCOMPANIED TO KWATHEMA BY KAIZER MOTAUNG.”
ckked Orlando Stadium.
Annd probably aware that stories ouut juju abound in Africa, Nene ed that belief to his own advantage. eree are certainly strange tales that heeard about muti during my time a foootball correspondent.
Yes, it is the oldest formula in the rld, the recipe for success. Some call uju, others describe it as marabou. It itchhcraft. nd ini Africa, it cannot be ignored, m thee smallest rural villages to the capitalpital citiesc of the continent – witchcraft touches every facet of African society and football is no exception.
Ancient rituals still offer solutions where modern methods have none. There are those cynics who dismiss the “supernatural” powers of muti in football and claim if juju had indeed any effect at all, an African country would have won the
FIFA World Cup trophy many decades ago.
Nevertheless, there are those who swear by the stuff prescribed by inyangas as real guarantees of victory; promises to adorn an athlete with supernatural speed and strength, or provide the goal that wins a match. Football players may question its effects, but none will deny its existence.
On this particular afternoon, as soon as he reached the centre circle, Nene started waving his notorious towel in the air. And as it started swirling on an overcast afternoon, the heavens opened, and it began raining.
Perhaps Nene had read the weather predictions for that day and knew that there would be a downpour in the afternoon. But to Zulu Royals followers, this was sorcery of the highest order. Some of them collapsed to the ground wailing ‘Ah magic, black magic!’. The incident put them off completely and they lost 5-1.
On another occasion, Nene boldly proclaimed ahead of a crucial derby match against Orlando Pirates, that they should be ready for a deadly striker who would be joining Chiefs prior to the match.
When pressed by the media to reveal the identity of the mysterious player, Nene coyly refused and eventually, in his bashful manner and quite reluctantly, revealed that he was only prepared to divulge that the t player was better known as ‘Bread and Butter!’. B
The media was awash about the mysterious player. But, come match-day, only the team’s known faces lined-up against their bitter rivals, but the Pirates technical t team kept craning their necks towards the Chiefs bench throughout the match, not fully concentrating on the game that they ended up losing.
The question uppermost on the lips of the media at the post match conference was: “Where was ‘Bread and Butter’? But the loquacious Nene, for once appeared like a Cheshire cat and gently admonished the media for not paying attention.
Basking under the glory of a famous victory over their bitter rivals, Nene explained that he had been misunderstood and maintained that he kept telling the media that Orlando Pirates was Kaizer Chiefs’ daily “Bread and Butter!”
Sadly, the motormouth, one of the most loveable human beings who had throughout his life preached about love and peace, had to lose his life under such violent circumstances.
“THE TRAGEDY MARKED THE END OF AN ERA ABOUT A MAN THAT HAD REVOLUTIONIZED LOCAL FOOTBALL WITH HIS GIFT OF THE GAB.”
“I GUESS IN HIS OWN WAY HE WANTED TO HONOUR NENE, WHO HAD DIED TRYING TO RECRUIT HIM FOR CHIEFS.”