DENWIN FARMER - UNATTACHED
Denwin, thanks for making time to be with us. It’s actually been a while since we last spoke to you, so we are looking forward to having a good time with you in this feature. You’ve been around the game for quite some time, but maybe we should start with your time at the SuperSport United Academy. What crazy memories do you have of the time you spent there?
Yho, that’s taking me way back, ha, ha, ha. I remember when I was at the SuperSport United Academy, we had some funny moments which I won’t forget. Probably the one that stands out the most was when… So, Dayne Jooste and I went out one Wednesday. We wanted to go buy food and we were off that day. But we did not tell anyone that we were leaving the academy to go buy some food. So, we jumped the fence and went to go get the food. When we came back, we found that the principal of Rosina Sedibane High School was waiting for us, ha, ha, ha.
Ha, ha, ha, most definitely the last person you would want to see after jumping a fence!
He called us Springboks because we were busy jumping the fence. He was watching us on the camera, so he saw everything, ha, ha, ha.
We can only imagine your reaction when he caught you…
We were so shocked because we did not expect anyone to see us. We went out thinking that we would not get caught, but when we came back, he was there. The camera caught us and we had no choice but to be quiet.
Well, “you have a right to remain silent” after all.
And the thing is that was the first time I ended up being in the principal’s office, so I did not know what to expect. But it was worth it because the food we bought was good, ha, ha, ha.
Ha, ha, ha, the greater the risk, the greater the reward. So did you two not know that there were cameras?
We never thought that there were cameras in that certain corner where we jumped the fence, ha, ha, ha.
Hmmm, caught red-handed. What did the principal end up saying after he pounced you?
We did not get into trouble. I think it’s because he liked us as we were literally the only two Coloureds in the school. He just called us springboks.
All’s well that ends well. Give us more, seems like the SuperSport academy days were literally the days of your life.
At SuperSport, our house father was Ta Lexy, as I remember him. He had this thing of waking us up every day and sometimes he would say weird things. on
Ha, ha, lik hat? He would come into our rooms saying that we should empty our bins. He had a stutter, so he would say, “You, you, you must take out the bin because you must go to school.” He would wake us up before 06h00 at the academy.
ew
sayi ngt hat to us. He was a strict guy, but he also had his good days. I just remembered when I was with the national U20 team, Aubrey Modiba used to like this song called ‘Johnny’. I promise you he would sing it every 10 minutes. I remember we were in Ivory Coast.
have been annoying, right?
Must Not at all, ha, ha, ha. Because we would always make jokes about it. Another funny guy in the U20 team was Nhlakanipho Ntuli. We would have supper, then we would find “Nanana”, as he is known, standing outside our rooms looking for snacks, ha, ha, ha.
Snacks after having an entire meal? Yes, he loved food a lot, ha, ha, ha.
You played Masuluke Kgoloko scribed the players to. ence? Coach Thobejane was a free spirit. His team talks were always interesting and at times he would involve mathematics when he talked to us. But I heard that he was also a teacher, so maybe that’s why mathematics would find its way into the team talks, ha, ha, ha. He had a way of bringing the best out
at Baroka FC with Oscarine and you were coached by Thobejane, who has been deas a funny character by some of we have previously spoken What was it like being in their pres
of players.
Give us an example.
I don’t know how, but he always had some mathematical lines and theories in there. It was funny. I remember one of the funniest moments was when we played against Stellenbosch FC. We had a good game and we outplayed them, and then they scored a goal out of nowhere. After the game, coach Thobejane was like, “Ja, eish! Ja, eish” the whole time. It was funny. I still have the video, ha, ha, ha.
Ha, ha, ha, talk about being speechless.
Ha, ha, ha. With Oscarine, he just loved dancing. He was a character. He would rock up at training, park his car and then he would start playing loud music. I think it was Tsonga music. He would jump out of the car and start dancing, ha, ha, ha. Nhlanhla Mgaga would sometimes join him with his dances.
Wow, classic Masuluke! Thank you so much for your time, Denwin. Nothing compares to a good laugh on a Thursday and hopefully we have you back on here sometime soon.
Thank you so much for the opportunity. I had a good time sharing the stories.