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RE: CONTENT IN PREVIOUS EDITION

I don’t agree with Doctor Khumalo’s analysis on the poor attendance in the Bafana Bafana v Namibia game. He said it was due to the fact that Hugo Broos made some bad remarks about Kaizer Chiefs players and the club’s supporters therefore decided not to attend. That’s not true because if you can check Bafana’s previous games, supporters have been dragging their feet in attending the national team’s games because of their poor displays. Chiefs supporters are even failing to attend their team’s matches, except for when they are playing against the socalled big teams or in cup competitions. Doctor even said that Chiefs supporters make up the majority of the supporters in the country. I fully disagree, period! You’ll only notice them when they want to attack their own technical team. Vuyani Joni was spot on when he said Bafana Bafana is a national team and every province deserves to host the team, not only Gauteng. Let the powers that be take the team to all the provinces and then you’ll see that it’s not the Chiefs supporters that boycotted Bafana as Doctor insinuates. Let’s put football politics aside and try to solve the problem at hand instead of hiding behind lame excuses. We know that Doctor is a Chiefs legend, so he doesn’t need to influence the nation into his own thinking and feelings. Take Bafana to KZN, Limpopo, Bloemfontein or Cape Town and you’ll see magic. It was also not the first time that Broos made bad remarks because he once did it against Jali and Zwane, but the Mamelodi Sundowns hierarchy didn’t blame the poor attendance at Bafana games on that. Chiefs supporters had nothing to do with it, but the people in charge are the ones creating problems. The SAFA structure is operating with an ‘iron fist’. Sibusiso Khumalo, Melmoth, KZN

After reading last week’s “Hanging with Doc”, I was excited to see the old column template, but my joy was short-lived after Mdokis shared that it was just a one-off. Otherwise, it was a well-crafted column and I enjoyed reading it. Doc highlighted the lack of Bafana Bafana support, among other issues. A lot of people are also concerned about the lack of attendance at the men’s national soccer team’s games. But I also agree that the solution to this challenge lies in taking Bafana games to other provinces where people hardly see football. I thank you.

MM Malaka, Pretoria

We can’t add more to what Doctor Khumalo and VeeJay (Vuyani Joni) said in last week’s edition of our weekly soccer Bible regarding the poor attendance figures at Bafana Bafana matches, especially when they play in Johannesburg. The question that we should be asking ourselves is, is our national team still relevant and adored like before? If not, we should ask ourselves what went wrong and when? We need to be honest with ourselves and get the relevant people to get our national team back to where it used to be. Lastly, I hope Kaizer Chiefs can beat Mamelodi Sundowns to set up a Soweto Derby in the MTN8 final. This MTN8 belongs to Soweto – hopefully it will be a “Money To Naturena” scenario this time around. As for Orlando Pirates v Stellenbosch FC, it’s a given that Bucs will be playing in the final, trying to defend the cup they won last season. Mompati Panyaza Ndlovu, Lekubu village, Zeerust

Mr Editor, may you please interview Dr. Irvin Khoza and ask him questions about the change of Orlando Pirates colours. Year in, year out, we experience change of colours at the club. I reckon our ancestors are not happy to see the mess that is these colours. The Pulse of the Nation film is teaching us a lot about the origins of Orlando Pirates, but it’s painful to see the colours being messed up. Finally, may Soccer Laduma go back to the Me and My Mates articles. In the past, you used to do interviews with one player from a team explaining the stuff we didn’t know about his teammates. There are more adverts than interviews these days in Soccer Laduma. We understand money talks, hence so many adverts, but please consider other innovations. Mosa “Mr Cool wa le Easy Blackberry One” Mothobi, via email

Reading Khabo Zitha’s interview in last week’s edition of Soccer Laduma, you could feel from her responses that Banyana Banyana is not respected as a national team. Even the present squad doesn’t get the respect they deserve. The erstwhile President of SAFA had the same attitude as the current one in terms of how they have treated the women’s national team in relation to the male ones. Both these teams represent the same country and deserve the same treatment. On another note, the Still In Touch with the legend, Mzawuthethi Nogwaza, is so interesting. He was not scared of telling the truth and standing up for what was right for himself, and therefore didn’t need any lawyer. I laughed very hard these past three weeks and have learned a lot from his interview. Nyambeni Samson Khuphani, Tshiawelo Ext 5

The Shawn Bishop interview indicates why Mamelodi Sundowns are country miles ahead compared to their counterparts. Everything at the club is done with due diligence and care, and the philosophy filters down across various divisions, whether it’s U15 or the women’s team. People that are appointed must be qualified for the positions they apply for and a formal interview process will take place to ensure the right people are appointed to the right positions. Their success is not a fluke but the result of doing things the right way. I remember in one of the previous Soccer Laduma editions, Pitso Mosimane said that we must stop this concept of appointing mathematics teachers as football coaches as that does a disservice to the world of soccer. With the hive mentality Rhulani Mokwena is entrenching, success will always marry Sundowns because they always make sure that their ducks are in a row. You cannot be lucky forever, you need to put a system in place and Downs are doing that excellently. On the same developmental issue albeit from Orlando Pirates’ side, I was impressed by the interview of Mandla Qhogi. This guy worked behind the scenes in unearthing gems, but as always, never got the credit he deserved. I want to take this opportunity to appreciate your effort, my brother. Your impact is tangible to us. Zakhele Lepasa and Lyle Foster are doing justice to your work. All the best with your future endeavours. Thapelo Masiapata, Ramaroka village, Bolobedu

Reading Mandla Qhogi’s interview made me realise how unfair our clubs can be at times. I agree that no one deserves to be at a certain club forever, but it’s the way the clubs do things that shows a level of brutality to me. In issue 1338, Soccer Laduma did an interview with Thabo September where he spoke about youth coaches not getting respect from their clubs. During Qhogi’s time at the club, the Bucs development team played a good brand of football under his mentorship. I had hoped he’d be elevated to the first team one day. Qhogi and his colleagues acquired good players who are doing exceptionally well on the field of play as we speak. I hope he wasn’t used as a scapegoat due to the fact that the team might have felt that they owed Joseph “DukuDuku” Makhanya for all the years he was at Orlando Pirates. Mr Qhogi, I hope and pray that you won’t be lost to our South African soccer. Nafie Moloantoa, KwaThema

MORE VIEWS ON ESGODINI ABSENTEEISM

After Bafana Bafana’s pathetic performance against Namibia, what did coach Hugo Broos expect with the game against the Democratic Republic of Congo? A stadium full of South African supporters? Never! We have been fooled once, not twice. The weather didn’t make it any difficult to decide because already South Africans were discouraged by the latest performance. It’s obvious the Congolese fans were going to outnumber South Africans at the stadium. Mzansi musicians used to complain about the same lack of support, but since they produce quality, they have increased their fanbase automatically. Bafana and Broos must do the same if they want supporters at the stadium consistently. They must win something, period.

Leon White, via email

After two friendly games last week, against Namibia and the Democratic Republic of Congo respectively, where our national team played in front of an empty stadium, I think it’s time that SAFA realise that Bafana Bafana is a national asset, not a Gauteng team, and start to take games to different provinces across the country. If I’m not mistaken, most of the provinces have FIFA World Cup stadiums, except for the Northern Cape. Take the games to the people who are hungry to watch their national heroes, just like Rugby and Cricket do. Play games across the country, where we will have a full capacity crowd. Gauteng is the only province that gets the privilege of hosting the games and until SAFA think out of the box, they will play in front of empty stadiums forever. Leponesa Chacha, Botshabelo

I’m so happy with the way the Springboks are currently performing at the World Cup. I hope Bafana Bafana can also bring back the glory days because it’s been a long time. Even fans are no longer interested in attending their matches. I’m very worried and, to be honest, I no longer watch Bafana games. It’s high time that we do things the right way. I’m appealing to our players to leave the comfort zone and get contracts overseas so that our national team can improve. Our best players are still playing at home. Exporting players overseas will help us a lot in terms of having a competitive national team. I’m so worried we don’t have the depth in our teams

Derrick Spencer - Former Kaizer Chiefs defender