Manyonga is my man, on any given Sunday

“SEE, ya are what ya are in this world. That’s either one of two things: Either you’re somebody, or you ain’t nobody.”

That’s a quote from one of my favourite blockbusters, American Gangster.

It is spoken by one of my favourite film stars of all time, Denzil Washington.

In this 2007 blockbuster, Washington portrays Frank Lucas, a drug lord who came from nothing.

Lucas rose from being the right-hand man of Bumpy Johnson. He became the main man, whose ‘blue magic’ cocaine became the drug of choice for the vandals, ruffians and hoodlums of Harlem. “My man” is a favourite line of Lucas’s. I found myself saying “my man” while watching long jumper Luvo Manyonga giving what I considered to be the most naked interview of his career.

Speaking to my colleague Thomas Mlambo on SportAt10TV on Wednesday evening, the Rio Olympics silver medallist Manyonga laid his soul bare.

The 25-year-old narrated to the nation how his addiction to tik sent him on a slippery slope down the doldrums. He left his humble home to go live under a bridge. He wasn’t thinking. His drug of choice, tik, was doing all the thinking.

He stole and robbed. He did anything and everything. Just to get his fix of tik.

To be higher and higher than Brenda Fassie’s song Higher and Higher.

Manyonga was wasting away. With that he was throwing his talent and skill as a world class high jumper away.

Life under a bridge led to him being bitten by rats. The wounds gave him an infection. In the end, like a punch-drunk boxer, his vision impaired by the fists of fury that has rearranged his looks, Manyonga was down. He beat the count. Cleaned up his act. Got back to the track. Jumped as high as he could. Landed in the sand pit. Still, sadly, tik was in his system. The men in white coats came. They tested him. Oopsie! Positive. Banned substance. You’re banned Luvo. Two years.