Mainstay Cup hero goes to rest
Erich Muinjo
1956 - 2021
Death has struck again as the country mourns the tragic double death of former Orlando Pirates stalwart Erich Muinjo and Robber Chanties Football Club’s tough-as-steak defender Bizzo Kaninab, who both succumbed to the devastating Covid-19 epidemic. Erich will go down in history as the man who unintentionally changed the landscape of domestic football when he left boyhood team Orlando Pirates to join Ramblers, a predominantly white team in 1981. However, his arrival at the ambitious
Pionierspark outfit was met with mixed feelings, splitting the management in two groups. Conservative club members were not in favour of welcoming athletes of colour to their sacred nest and wanted to keep the club exclusively white.
However, the quartet of Siggie Frewer, Manuel Coelho, Andy Alfheim and Bobby Craddock dug their heels in the sand and stood their ground, ultimately winning the battle to open the door for the club to become the first-ever white sporting entity in then Apartheid South West Africa to incorporate athletes of colour into their stable. Erich went on to make history by becoming the first fullyfledged qualified football coach to obtain an A-License in Germany upon the dawn of Namibia’s democracy in 1990. He rose to prominence when his solitary goal earned Orlando Pirates a hard fought 1-0 victory over bitter rivals Black Africa in the final of the second edition of the coveted Mainstay Cup at the packed-tothe-rafters Katutura stadium 1978. In today’s edition of your favourite weekly sport feature, Tales of the Legends, which chronicles our sport heroes and heroines present and posthumously, New Era Sport also pays tribute to another Ghosts legend Bizzo Kaninab, who has also joined his ancestors in heaven. May their souls rest easy collectively.