Thulasizwe Mbuyane

We loved Juju so much

“To be honest with you, if the current players can learn from people like Thulasizwe Mbuyane, there would always be more people at our stadiums. Juju cared about the supporters so much that, whenever he scored, he would celebrate with his teammates and the supporters to show appreciation. He was also a team player that always showed and created a positive team spirit. He didn’t only do that with his teammates but the supporters as well. He cared about us and understood the supporters’ importance in the game. That’s why he always danced with us and everyone knows the ‘Juju dance’ and the impact it had in terms of uniting the supporters. We loved Juju so much for that and you won’t find even one supporter having anything negative to say about Juju. We all have good things to say about him because he was one of us. Whenever we played Mamelodi Sundowns, as supporters, we always knew that, as long as Juju was on the field, he would score and put a smile on our faces. We always had an upper hand against Sundowns because of Juju and you can see the difference in our results with them after Juju left. They started giving us problems until recently and that goes to show the importance of Mbuyane in our team. That’s the kind of person Juju was in the team and we really miss him. He had an unbelievable relationship with everyone, including the supporters. Just recently, when we beat Kaizer Chiefs 2-1, Juju made time to celebrate and do the ‘Juju dance’ with us, even though he was busy working on the day. That reminded us of the days he was still in our team and the role he played. He took pictures and spoke to a lot of our supporters and that brought a lot of good memories. When you’re talking about Juju, you’re talking about a people’s person. I would like to urge Pirates supporters not to forget about Juju and what he’s done for our team. Let’s please vote for one of us to be inducted into the club’s Hall of Fame. He deserves to be among the club’s #80Legends. Even today, Juju remains one of our own because he will always be a Buccaneer. Juju, Juju, Juju, Juju!”