Mmileng Third Quarter 2018 Cover Star is South Africa Senior National Football Team’s Full-Back Ramahlwe Mphahlele.
In conservative communities like those in rural areas, most parents don’t harbour any ambitions of their children becoming career athletes, and rather encourage them to prioritise the ‘secure and sustainable’ academic route. But for the mother of Kaizer Chiefs star defender Ramahlwe Mphahlele, it was a case of maternal instinct. She believed in her son’s talent and that he could be something. But the strange part is that his mother had never seen him play, and would be told by people how much of a precocious player her son is. A seminal moment came in the early 2000s when his mother was listening to Thobela FM. She heard an announcement about a launch of football academy, and without delay, alerted her then teenage son to the opportunity.
That football academy, the Turfloop Sports School of Excellence, was being launched northeast in the township of Mankweng in the Polokwane Local Municipality, but in the same Capricorn District Municipality as his home village of Ga-Mphahlele. That is the intuitive sixth sense in a woman that is hardly wrong. And for Rama, as Mr Mphahlele’s first name is affectionately shortened, having had six unsuccessful trials, across both Limpopo and Gauteng, it was lucky number 7. He was drafted into the Turfloop Sports School of Excellence in a move that steered his prestigious youth career into the now successful professional football gig.
“Then the following year I moved to Supersport United’s Supersport-Feyenoord Academy in Pretoria to play for their Under-14 team,” recalls Mr Mphahlele.
“This was quickly followed by a decisive move to Moroka Swallows’ Under-15s. I stayed with Swallows Juniors, played through the club’s development ranks - the Under-17s and Under-19s - until I was eventually promoted to the senior team in 2006.”
His most appearances at a PSL club are still with Swallows, which has since flown into oblivion.
The humble and soft-spoken player from Ga-Mphahlele in the Lepelle-Nkumpi Local Mucipality then moved to Mamelodi Sundowns in 2011/12 to advance his career.
His stay at Sundowns included with a short loan spell to city neighbours University of Pretoria in 2012/13, campaigning in the top tier PSL at the time, and ended with the second of his two league titles and a CAF Champions League winner’s medal at Chloorkop.
He joined Chiefs - a club he supported since his boyhood – for the 2016/17 on a free transfer in a banner year that coincided with his big break to the South African Senior Football team, Bafana Bafana, even though his first call-up was a couple months earlier when he was still with Sundowns. He now dishes man of the match performances at club level week in week out, and is a regular call-up to Bafana Bafana.
He has been club captain at all his previous clubs. Mr Mphahlele says his versatility has had an added advantage to his career.
“You know, growing up I started as a right-winger. But I had to settle for the right-back position because in the amateur ranks in Ga-Mphahlele there was a player nicknamed Mkhalele, after Orlando Pirates legend Helman Mkhalele, who was very good and I knew I couldn’t compete with him.”
“At Swallows I played at centre-back but from time to time I’d play as a defensive midfielder,” says Mr Mphahlele.
“It’s important to be able to adapt to playing at least
“Reckless drivers must be reminded that their irresponsible actions are robbing families of breadwinners.”
more than one position. It helps your game improve.”
The player, who has had the privilege of representing South Africa at the Under-17, Under-20 and Under-23 age groups, even captaining the U-17s and U-20s as an established captain and a stand-in captain in one match at the U-23s, is back on country duty after performance resurgence.
But Mr Mphahlele, a third-born among four children, says growing up in the underdeveloped Ga-Mphahlele was never easy, more so being raised by a single-mother.
“We played a lot of games in the dusty streets. We didn’t have infrastructure and it was very difficult for us kids at the time. Even going to school was tough because we’d walk long distances, sometimes barefoot. But we made it through despite all of that.”
Two of his favourite quotes that he says drive him are, one made famous by retired American basketball player Charles Barkley: “If you are afraid of failure you don’t deserve to be successful”, and “Don’t let your struggles become your identity” a quote that is viral for being uplifting.
In Ga-Mphahele he played for amateur football club Barcelona, and attended Thagaetala High School in his home village of Dithabaneng. He also attended Mamabudusha Secondary School in a village of Mamotintane, Ga-Mamabolo on the outskirts of Polokwane.
“But things are better now,” says the now 28-year-old father of two. “The Limpopo provincial government has worked very hard to improve infrastructure in the province. They can still do (even) better though, but it’s evident that the Limpopo Department of Public Works, Roads and Infrastructure, through Roads Agency Limpopo, works hard because we now have more tarred roads than before.”
With Limpopo now having three Premier Soccer League(PSL) clubs for the 2018/19 season in Baroka, Polokwane City and Black Leopards, Mr Mphahlele and his Kaizer Chiefs team will visit the province at least three times this season.
And the number of visits or clubs visited could be even higher should the province get favourable draw in the cup matchups.
The quality of roads will make it easy to travel to match venues across the province.
With an average of a soccer player a year killed on the country’s roads in recent times, Mr Mphahlele is very mindful of the safety aspect of using roads, and cautions motorists to take responsibility for their own safety and that of others.
Roads are designed for maximum safety and every stretch of a road is designed for a particular speed. Hence driver behaviour and state of mind, and adjusting to other factors such as weather conditions and roadworthiness of vehicles is also crucial.
“Accidents happen anywhere in the country when people are reckless. For instance, during the Easter and Christmas periods, a person would drown themselves in alcohol before hitting the road. You can’t blame government for that. People need to be more responsible,” he warns.
“Reckless drivers must be reminded that their irresponsible actions are robbing families of breadwinners.”
Mr Mphahlele is evidently a family-orientated individual. He talks passionately about protecting loved ones, particularly his mother and siblings.
Mr Mphahlele’s mother lives in Limpopo, while his sister works in Bloemfontein. The brothers are all in Gauteng, the firstborn working while the lastborn is still studying.
“My mother is a very strong person. I’ll forever be grateful to my mother for what she did for me, you know. If she had not informed me about that academy, I wouldn’t have been where I am today.”
“I go home whenever I can to see my mother. She’s proud of us and we are all proud of the strong woman that she is.”
Mr Mphahlele recently launched the Ramahlwe Mphahlele Sports Foundation, with the intention of empowering young people of Limpopo, through education and sport.
“We want to conduct workshops and coaching clinics, and give advice on the importance of mixing education with sport. It doesn’t only have to be soccer, but any sporting code a child chooses must be accompanied by education.”
For what he has achieved so far in his career, Mr Mphahlele is relatively underrated and as unassuming as a pangolin.