Still In Touch With...

Rodney Thobejane rates Jabu Pule (now Mahlangu) as the best player among those he wore the same jersey with, while conceding that Siyabonga Nomvethe always gave him a tough time on the field of play. Of the current generation of Absa Premiership players,

Danger, let’s get this sequel to last week’s Still In Touch’ going. So you get to Kaizer Chiefs. How do you find things? On my first day, I was a little bit scared. To be honest, and I’m not buying face by saying this, Kaizer Chiefs are a professional outfit. The welcome that you get there is world-class, whether you come from a small team or a big team, because they think you are coming to add value to the team. I remember when I arrived there, I met Jacob Tshisevhe. He said, “My brother, look, this is a big team. I’ve been watching you playing at Ria Stars and you are a great player, but let me tell you something don’t concentrate on whatever is happening, especially on the supporters’ side .You must always know in football that there are supporters who will love you and there are those who will not love you. When they boo you or support you, don’t let it get to you that they don’t love you or that they love you and then start to relax. Just keep on pushing. I said, “No, thanks for your advice, Jacob Tshisevhe, man. I’ll try my best to do that and I won’t disappoint you. Given a chance, I’ll prove that I can make it. The competition in the team was high, but I didn’t tell myself that I was going to relax. I was always with Tinashe Nengomasha and Josias Macamo. People need to understand that every coach has his own philosophy. That time, we were coached by Muhsin Ertugral and he used to tell me that my time would come and he would play me sometimes just to get used to the pressure at Chiefs. I needed to be strong because the team had a lot of supporters, some of whom expect a win all the time. How was Muhsin? He helped me a lot. You know, it was a little bit tough for me when I got to Chiefs. The thing is that some other teams don’t have the facilities or equipment that a team like Chiefs enjoys, especially when it comes to enhancing your fitness. When I got to the team, they had this thing of going to Virgin Active and also had a fitness trainer and I was struggling a bit, but Muhsin came up to me and asked, “What is happening I replied, “No, man, coach, I’m struggling. He told me I would be fine. He later showed me how I should operate in the position I was playing. He told me to communicate with the people I was playing with at the back and be friends with them. Ask them what their strengths and weaknesses were so that I could become a better player. Who was your roommate in camp? Ha, ha, ha, you know, those guys used to

taketae turns sharingsarng a room withwt me – I’mm talking about Nengomasha, Cyril Nzama, Arthur Zwane and Thabo Mooki. The one who always wanted to share a room with me was Mooki and he was very clever because he knew I was a quiet guy back then and I wouldn’t ask him a lot of questions. He normally used to arrive late for camp. So he would SMS me, “Which room are you in and I would tell him, “I’m in Room 123. After that, he would text, “Ok. Then he would arrive just as we were having dinner and then pretend that I had been with him in the room. I would play along by telling everyone else, “No, Thabo had gone out to buy something.

“Jabu would tell him that he was a cow.”

There must have been a lot of characters in the team. Too many! Too many! Nzama and Jabu Pule (now Mahlangu) were trouble, especially when it came to teasing the other players. Jabu was always on the case of Marco Mthembu. I remember one day Jabu made a mistake and then Mthembu shouted at him in English. This left Jabu unimpressed and he retorted, “Marco, kanti why wena ubusy ukhuluma isilungu? Ufuna ukubonisa lo muntu ukuthi mina ngenze imistake (why are you busy speaking English Do you want to show the coach that I made a mistake) It didn’t end there, because in camp, Jabu went on and on telling him, “Hayi wena Marco uyabheda. Uthanda isilungu kakhulu (You Marco, you are something else. You like English too much). Ha, ha, ha, that was Jabu for you! As for Nzama, he used to call himself Raul and always had something to say to Jabu and Arthur, just for the fun of it. He would tell them, “Uyabona mina bafana bami nicabanga ukuthi ngiyi defender. Fakani mina lapha in midfield nizobona iskill (You lads think I’m a defender. Just put me there in midfield and you will see skill). That would bee wwhenen Jabu au would tell him that he was a cow. What I liked about Nzama is that you would never catch him in a foul mood – he would be talking and laughing all the way. Good guy. Great professional! He would tell the guys, “Angithi nina nithi ningama celebrity? Uma nifuna ama kota,

thumani mina lapha eSoweto ngiyonithengela lama kota nizowadlela lana

eNaturena (So you say you are celebrities, right If you happen to want kota, send me there in Soweto to buy it for you and then you can eat it here in Naturena). aturena Indeed,nee tthee guys wouldwou sensend him to buy kota in the location and they would enjoy the meal at the Naturena Village. Just imagine that! But he was a stingy guy and would tell them in no uncertain terms that he would always eat the kota but would not fork out anything. Even now I still communicate with him and, whenever I need advice, I call him, since I’m still involved in football. Even with Doctor Khumalo, I will pick up the phone and call him if I need some advice. Patrick Mbuthu was another character, but he had his group – that was Jabu, Thabiso Skaapie’ Malatsi, Isaac Mabotsa, Lucky Maselesele and Mooki. He would talk too much whenever he was in their company, but immediately when the others arrived, he would be the complete opposite

“The one who always wanted to share a room with me was Mooki.”

and not say much. The serious one was Jabulani Mendu. He was close to the late John Shoes’ Moshoeu. He took his job very seriously and, after training, he would get into his car and leave. After three years, you then left the club for a new challenge at Dynamos… I had a very good time at Dynamos and I don’t know why the team is no more, but I must say it’s probably because teams in Limpopo don’t get sponsors to boost them. Maybe that’s why the team struggled. We once played Orlando Pirates at Peter Mokaba Stadium in the Absa Cup and no one believed that we would beat this big team. Everyone said Pirates were going to wallop us and, before that game, we met as players and told ourselves that although Pirates were a big team, it was the name that was big and not the players. That we were all the same and it was all about our attitude and determination. We beat them that day and, for the whole of that week, it was like we had won the league. We were all happy, knowing that we had beaten a team a lot of people didn’t think we would beat. I’ll never forget that game because there were some problems even the day before the game, whereby our management were fighting with security guards in the stadium at night. That’s what motivated us to say, Oh, they think that muti works. Let’s go and show them that we can beat them with their muti.’ After we won that game, they couldn’t believe it!

“It was like we had won the league.”

Nah, you’re not telling us the truth, your muti was stronger than that of Pirates! Ha, ha, ha. No, no, no, people misinterpret things. Let me tell you, I played for Dynamos for five to six years and they never used muti in the PSL. They only used the stuff after they employed maar eish, that guy will kill me and will think I’m saying he believes in muti. But it was after they employed Sinky Mnisi. By Lunga Adam