Kudos to sports writer for breaking stereotypes about black coaches
It was heart-warming to read your newspaper on June 8 with an article titled “Unsung Coach a Hero Behind Our Champ”, written by Daniel Mothowagae.
Apart form the fact that he was introducing another side of this year’s Comrades winner Bong’musa Mthembu, this sports writer succeeded in doing something unusual by telling us about the man who shaped and trained Mthembu into becoming a champion.
Many a time readers, listeners and viewers do not care about the hours spent invested in producing a champion, let alone the coach who patiently drilled that particular player.
Therefore your journalist introduced an extremely different and fresh angle.
This article shed light on the athletic life of this runner.
Some thought Mthembu was trained and groomed by a white coach.
This is largely due to the fact that there are those who still think that no black coach can produce a world champion, and in particular a Comrades winner.
This reminds me of the days of the late Baby Jake Matlala, who won great world boxing titles under the tutelage of the late trainer Theo Mthembu.
Even in this time and age, there are still those who doubt and have countless reservations about the wonders that could be done by black coaches and trainers.
It is against this background that we doff our hat to your journalist who thought out of the box by introducing us to the behind the scenes world of Mthembu through the lenses of his coach.
Keep it up, Mothowagae.
In you we have the up-and-coming sport legend who will emulate without any veneer of hesitation your past decades’ predecessors.
The likes of Meshack Motloung, Boiki Mothei, Harold Pongolo, Phil Nyamane, Louis Mazibuko, Sy Lerman and Thomas Kwenaite.
Themba J Nkosi,
Madadeni