Book of the month
The late Dr Petrus Molemela’s story, as written in the autobiographical book I Have Seen It All
Dr Petrus Molemela was a giant in South African football and the driving force behind turning Bloemfontein Celtic into a trophywinning side. His passing on March 26 at the age of 83 drew condolences as well as words of acknowledgement for his contribution from around the country. His is a story of a selfmade man who came from humble beginnings to excel in all walks of life. It is a story well told in the autobiographical book I Have Seen It All, written by former Celtic CEO Charley Pietersen. KICK OFF has been given permission to reproduce an excerpt from the book that gives a glimpse into the character that was Dr Molemela.
The 1985 team that won the Mainstay Cup worked very hard to achieve this win. They were good players, the likes of Eden “The End” Katango and Ernest Chirwali. They used to train in the morning on their own, even though during the day they still had more training. They worked twice as hard and trained in the morning, during the day and at night.
When Ernest touched that ball
you would swear he had eyes behind his head. He was very good. I was proud and had confidence in the team. There was a coach called Milo [Bjelica], whom I thought was mad, as he would ask the players, ”Between Celtic and the other clubs, which one do you like?” If they chose another club, then they were out of the Celtic team because he would say that they should live, eat, sleep and breathe Celtic. In other words, when you played for a team, you should live for that team. It should be like a husband and wife. When a guy is married he should only think of his wife and not of other women. During that time the referees used to do as they pleased on the field, sometimes you would think they wanted the other team to win. I remember when we played against [Kaizer] Chiefs and the referee had given them a chance for a penalty. They had missed one goal, and then he had given them another chance. I was so mad. I went on to the field and I started to beat him up. He stopped what he was doing. It is the same with supporters. When your team wins, you are the king, but when they lose they come to you and complain and they can behave very badly. Once, one of the supporters had started misbehaving and I slapped one of them. There was an incident when people had accused me of slapping Abdul Bhamjee, the former National Soccer League Public Relations Officer. I did not slap Abdul Bhamjee, but in this situation he was not being fair, and he was moody. When he wanted a certain team to win, we all had to support that team, so we had become involved in a small fight. I had just pushed him.
The 1985 supporters loved Celtic:
they would gather green leaves or trees and take them into the stadiums. In following years Celtic started to lose supporters, a few at a time, but it continued. Then they had said they wanted me back, but I had refused as they never used to allow me to just continue doing what I was doing, which was a good job. I lost millions of rands in running Celtic without a sponsor. I had to invest in the team from my own pocket. It had become a success without sponsors and I had built a future for some people. I am proud of this. I took kids from the streets of South Africa, and I went around Africa to find players to come and join the team.