CASRIC STARS’ MASIXOLE NKEWANA

Masixole, we recently spoke to your teammate Lungelo Bhengu and he suggested that we get in touch with you if a good time is what we’re looking for. Ready?

Thanks for the opportunity, my brother.

Where do we start?

When I was at Royal AM in the National First Division (officially known as Motsepe Foundation Championship), there was a game where I was injured, and I was sitting with (Mbulelo) OJ Mabizela. We were sitU23 ting in the VIP and I was still an player at the time. He kept on sending me to get him things while we were sitting in the VIP section. He kept on telling me to go get food or snacks. He was busy sending me up and down, ha, ha, ha. The team lost that game, and he was like, “Let’s go to the dressing room.” When we got to the dressing room, he started shouting at the guys. He was like, “You guys can’t lose playing against fat people. You won’t make it in the PSL.” If I remember well, we were playing against Milano United. Being in the same team as OJ was so funny because he was a character.

That’s just plain crazy.

What’s interesting is that I played centre-back with him at times, so there was a lot I got to experience with him. I remember we were playing a friendly game this one time against an ABC Motsepe League team. I was enjoying myself that day, passing the ball around comfortably and moving. I remember I passed the ball and then I joined the attack. Then he was like, “You can’t play centre-back like that. I will hit you here on the ground”, ha, ha, ha.

Ha, ha, ha, that must have scared you a little? Ha, ha, ha. There were a lot of guys scared of him. He was a character, but also a leader in the team. He was guiding me a lot because I played centre-back. I remember this one time we were travelling to Richards Bay. We were all in the bus, waiting for OJ. Then the coaches said to me, “Go call your father.” So, I went to look for OJ. When I got there, he said “I am still showering. Tell them I am still showering. Tell them they should wait for me.” He was such a character, ha, ha, ha. I used to laugh with him a lot. I really enjoyed playing with him and he helped me a lot, I won’t lie.

Seems like OJ enjoyed this ‘father-figure role’ he played towards you, and took it to the limits at times. Did he listen to you whenever you communicated with him on the pitch?

That guy was stubborn. There were some moments when he was like, “Hey, I am older than you. You must run more”, ha, ha, ha. The times I had at Royal AM were some of the best I’ve had. We had guys like (KatDominic lego) “Killer” Mphela, Isaacs and Khethokwakhe Masuku, who was another character. I remember this one time Masuku did not make the team and he was not happy about it. So, he said, “Do you guys know that Masuku was in Cairo an dhe shook hands with Aboutrika and you guys are leaving me behind?” Ha, ha, ha. He was not happy that day. I laughed so much. I learnt so much about football from the characters we had at Royal AM. I also got to play with Masibusane Zongo when I was there.

Hmmm, the so-called Bad Boy. Tell us about him…

He was a character. There was a time when he came on as a substitute. He was someone who could not be in training for maybe two weeks. Then they put him on. So, he passed the ball without looking and then he asked me, “Did it get there?” He did not even look where the ball went after passing it, ha, ha, ha.

Ha, ha, ha, we love it!

Can you imagine? He asked me if the ball got to where it was meant to go. I ended up laughing on the ground because he was a character. When you talk about talent, Zongo was a special player. Zongo came after OJ had left.

Imagine the havoc in the dressing room if Mabizela and Zongo had played together.

Yho, that would have been so interesting, ha, ha, ha! Two characters that are crazy. If they had played together at Royal AM, I was going to laugh every day because they are funny guys. I would have loved to see what it would have been like to share a dressing room with them at the same time. Another interesting character I played with was Paulus Masehe at Free State Stars. He used to make us laugh. On the pitch, he used to say, “I am marking here, you must also mark.” So, I used to say, “Relax” and he would say, “No, we are working here”, ha, ha, ha. He was a leader and he liked making jokes.

Before we let you go, what do you have to share with us from your current side?

At Casric, our fitness trainer, coach Hassan Falayajo, is a funny guy. Sometimes we don’t understand his English. He is from Nigeria, so his English is not so great. Sometimes he tries to explain something before a warm-up, but the guys don’t understand what he is saying, ha, ha, ha. Then we ask him to demonstrate, then he can’t demonstrate, ha, ha, ha. But he is a good coach and he helped me a lot when I got to Casric. I haven’t been at Casric for long, but I am sure there will be many stories in future.

Ha, ha, ha. We should call you back in future to hear those stories from Casric. Thank you so much for your time, bro. Those were some hilarious ones from your time at Thwihli Thwahla. No prizes for guessing whether you had a good time down in KwaZulu-Natal.