Ha, ha, ha. We hope Mzimela learnt his lesson.

Lerato, let’s get the ball rolling!

I’ve got a few stories to share with you grootman (big man). The first story I can think of happened when I was still playing for Chippa United. It’s about Mbongeni Mzimela, who was our goalkeeper. So, in one of the months, this guy was paid double his salary. We got to training that day and he was so happy, telling us that he had been paid twice by the club. We were all surprised and asked ourselves what was happening. But the management kept quiet about it, not saying anything to him. But what followed was funny…

Ha, ha, ha, and that was?

The following month, he was not paid, ha, ha, ha. So, he went on strike trying to figure out why he was not paid, but the club said to him, “But you were paid double last month.” They were saying he couldn’t get paid again after being paid twice the previous month.

Shame man. He must have gone on some spending spree the previous month, and now he was in trouble.

Yes, he spent. The club did not say anything to him, they just kept quiet. So, he decided to go spend that money and then the following month, he did not get paid. That was a funny one.

But why didn’t he go to management to find out why he was paid double that month?

He thought that they had made a mistake. We told him that he should go to management and tell them that he was paid twice, but he did not go, and instead he spent the money, ha, ha, ha.

Another story I can think of involves Itumeleng Duiker. I played with him at Bloemfontein Celtic. This one time, we were traveling from Bloemfontein to Johannesburg for a match. Normally, at Celtic we would travel with a bus, so as he was walking into the bus, I could see that this guy was crying. I was sitting with (Tsietsi) Mahoa and Duiker went to sit with (Thabo) Nthethe. So, he was crying and then we asked him what the problem was because we were worried that our teammate was not okay. We kept on asking ourselves what the problem was and he was not telling us at first.

Did you end up finding out what was wrong?

The issue was that his girlfriend had a man at her flat. So, the girl had told Duiker that he shouldn’t come to her place because her family would be there. But Duiker went to the girl’s place because he needed to get his things, but next thing, there was a guy who

opened the door and asked Duiker who he was. Duiker told that guy who he was and said that he was there to pick up his things. The story goes that the man slammed the door on his face and then the girl came to the door and told Duiker that he should go and collect his things the following day. This story sounds like it’s about to get even

more interesting…

Ha, ha, ha, yes. That guy came back to the door and said Duiker should tell the truth about who he was. That guy, mind you, was the girl’s man. So, because this guy was a soldier and he was a giant, Duiker ended up saying that girl was his sister, ha, ha, ha. That guy was a giant, so Duiker did not want to get into a fight with him, ha, ha, ha.

Ha, ha, ha. Eish, it must have been a tricky situation for Duiker.

Yes, he was scared to get hit by that guy, ha, ha. He told us that he was a mountain of a man. So, it sounded as though that guy and the girl were married, so she would hide her ring every time Duiker came over. Duiker ended up running away. As he was telling us the story, we could not stop laughing about it. We asked him what on earth he was thinking.

So, he had no idea that the woman was married?

He did not know, because she would hide the ring each time. We laughed at him for the whole trip, because he liked showing us pictures of the girl. We would tell him that he should not be sure about the girl so early. We told him that he should not be too excited too early. And as we were telling him that, he thought we were wishing something bad for him, but he got to see that you must take your time to get to know someone. There is no need to rush.

Yes, as Percy Sledge would tell you, “Take time to know her.” So, did Duiker stop crying in the bus?

Ha, ha, ha, yes, he did stop crying and he ended up sleeping. The guys were laughing at him. He had not slept the night before because the whole situation was stressing him. The best thing for him was to sleep in the bus and get some rest.

We can imagine how long that bus ride must have been for Duiker after the experience he had the previous day. Anyway, thanks for your time.

Thanks for the opportunity.