Potential banana skin for Amakhosi
Goodenough Mashego traces the roots of Acornbush as they look forward to facing Kaizer Chiefs today in a Nedbank last-16 clash in Kabokweni, Mpumalanga
SOON after Acornbush United humbled Cape Town City FC in the Nedbank Cup last 32, a television commentator trying to sound knowledgeable said “the name Acornbush comes from combining the names of Bushbuckridge Municipality and Acornhoek Municipality”.
Little is known about this giantkiller outfit founded by the late philanthropist-businessman Reckson Mashile.
Mashile passed away about six years ago and left a team with a rich history.
The Acornbush brand was an early example of marketing ingenuity by a black entrepreneur. The name of the team was meant to appeal to the communities of both Acornhoek and Bushbuckridge.
The brand was first unveiled to the public through Acornbush Driving School, believed to be the oldest black-owned driving school in the then Eastern Transvaal, which Mashile founded in 1977 after a stint working in Johannesburg.
There is an interesting picture of the man wearing a 1970s Afro leaning on a cream-white Chevrolet, which was the first asset in what has become a hugely successful brand.
Acornbush Driving School gave birth to Acornbush Dry Cleaners before Acornbush United was born.
Inspired by soccer administrators such as Kaizer Motaung, who returned from playing in the US with a burning desire to start a football team, and Jomo Sono, who also returned from the US feeling pinched by the spirit of entrepreneurship.
Mashile, unlike Sono and Motaung, started his outfit from scratch.
He was more in the mould of the late Petrus Molemela of then Bloemfontein Celtic.
Acornbush United is 30 years old this year and is run by a secondgeneration Mashile.
Club chairman Mathata Mashile used to play leftback for the team when his father was still alive and at the helm.
But that was long after the team was founded and campaigned in the 1990s, contesting the Bob Save Super Bowl against National Soccer League teams.
One of the occasions people of Bushbuckridge saw iconic players from teams such as Moroka Swallows, Orlando Pirates, Jomo Cosmos and Witbank Aces, among others, was when they came to Pauliana Stadium to take on either Acornbush or Health Centre United, the once two big rivals of Bushbuckridge.
Mathata Mashile told an SABC radio station recently, after they humbled Eric Tinkler’s boys last month, that Acornbush is no longer a Bushbuckridge team, but a Mpumalanga team. It was a humbling moment for the residents of Shatale, where the late Reckson Mashile lived and started the team, that a brand born in their hamlet had finally outgrown them.
Bushbuckridge has always dreamt big and Acornbush’s success has returned that belief that some day they will be counted among the top sides in the country.
Although the David-versus-Goliath metaphor is often overused when it comes to soccer duels, it is one mentioned this time around as Kaizer Chiefs travel to Kabokweni Stadium, nicknamed slaughterhouse, to face a team coached by another Bushbuckridge native, MacDonald Makhubedu.
Makhubedu has nothing to lose. Acornbush is not a David.
Not after humiliating the top team in the PSL.
Still, it is not a Goliath as Chiefs come to Mpumalanga with their tails up after beating Mamelodi Sundowns 2-1 in a league encounter. Chiefs believe, unlike Cape Town City, that they have cup pedigree.
They are the Goliath with a reputation to match, something Acornbush only has in the K Motsepe Promotional League, Mpumalanga chapter, which it has already wrapped up and is readying for playoffs.
Whatever happens today, the people of Mpumalanga will wake up the day after with a sense of pride — that they brought a big team to a township, not Mbombela Stadium.
Whatever the result, Acornbush, a 40-year-old brand rooted in philanthropy, wins.
Mashego is a Bushbuckridge-based writer