Black Stone’s Chiefs regret
I wish I could have gone to the club earlier – legend
IWAS LATE, very late, but Jack Chamangwana didn’t look the least irritated. Not even when I requested to take a call and send a message in the middle of our interview did he seem to think of me as tardy (which I was).
Damn, he even offered to help me when I struggled to take a picture of some piece of paper I needed to urgently send via WhatsApp.
Such is his “take things as they come” nature. And that’s one of the attributes that made him a Kaizer Chiefs legend.
“Oh, Jack, what a privilege it was to play with him,” William Shongwe chimes.
“I was still a youngster in the team and to have him and (Sylvester) “City” Kole in front of me made my life very easy. Their calmness under pressure was remarkable.
“Though Jack was not the quickest, he had this amazing anticipation that you’d never see him diving into tackles. He read the game very well and unbelievable aerially.
“I remember how he used to put his arm around me like a big brother when we were struggling or trailing and said, in that Malawian accent of his, ‘don’t worry, we’ll win this game’. And too often if Jack said it, that’s how it happened.”
That was in the late 1980s and such was his impact in the gold and black kit, it is hard to believe he was only at the club for two and a half years.
“What I regret is that I came to Chiefs late,” he laments. “Those two and a half years were not enough. But there was no way I could have played longer.”
See, Chamangwana joined Amakhosi at the age of 29, already an experienced international and in possession of a coaching qualification attained from Brazil.
It was at the behest of compatriot Ricky “Ace” Phuka – already at Chiefs – that he trekked down south.
“I was actually considering retirement after I had a tendon injury while playing for the national team. I had the oper- ation in South Africa and, though I’d already read about Chiefs in magazines, I got to hear more about them when I was here. And then Ricky told the chairman (Kaizer Motaung) about me.”
The decision to join Chiefs was not easy, though.
“My wife and I already had two young boys and we had to think hard about it. When I came here she had just given birth to our third son so it was hard to leave them behind. They joined me later, though.”
Joining Amakhosi midway through the year, Chamangwana quickly made his mark and helped Chiefs win the JPS trophy.
More trophies followed and in those successes, the role of the man they had nicknamed “Black Stone”, “because of my very dark complexion and that I was as strong as a stone”, couldn’t be denied.
Though a seasoned player himself, Chamangwana says he was lucky to have arrived at a Chiefs side teeming with experience.
“The club had matured and talented players and as a defender that made it easy to come in and settle quickly. To have top guys like Howard Freese, Sylvester Kole and Teenage Dladla as teammates gave me great confidence.”
Chamangwana is in the country as the club’s guest for this afternoon’s Soweto Derby against rivals Orlando Pirates.
It will be the first match he attends since leaving the country back in 1997 and is hoping for a thriller similar to the many he was involved in back then.
“The Derby,” he smiles “What a match! You don’t need a coach for this match because of its magnitude. I remember how everyone would be psyched up for it from the beginning of the week. What more could you ask for than to play at a packed stadium in the biggest match in the country?”
Looking at the current Chiefs team, Chamangwana is particularly impressed with Erick Mathoho and Lorenzo Gordinho saying “they’re doing well” but feels Chiefs could do with a bit of height upfront.
As he remembers his derby days, an incident from the big match stands out for him.
“Pirates had this light complexioned striker, I don’t remember his name (Basil Steenkamp) and in one match he just hit me with his elbow when the referee was not looking. I thought to myself, okay we’re in a war here,” he laughs, somewhat nonchalantly.
But true to his calm nature, Chamangwana didn’t react but rather resorted to keeping a tight leash on the Buccaneers forward. “I knew better than to retaliate or get worked up by him, so I just marked him close and ensured he didn’t score.”
Steenkamp, though, was not among the players Chamangwana had trouble dealing with.
“Julius Chirwa of AmaZulu always gave me a hard time. But I really struggled with skilful players. There was that guy at Sundowns, (Augustine) Makalakalane, Zane Moosa at Wits and the young guy who died from Cosmos (Thomas Madigage). Because of my age, I knew I could not compete with them for pace, so I made sure they don’t get the ball.”
Timing. I didn’t get it right, arriving very late for our interview. But then again, Chamangwana knows all about being late.
“I wish I could have come to Chiefs earlier,” he said with an unmistakable hint of regret in his voice.