TEBOGO MATHEBULA (PART 4)

Let’s go out with a bang! What do you have for us this time around?

We start with a story involving Strydom Wambi, who is at Swallows FC now. He came from Royal AM. We were playing together at amateur level… actually, before it became the ABC Motsepe League, it was known as the Vodacom League, and we were on the books of M Tigers. This guy, Elijah (Mahlangu), had just bought a team and it was a well-organised outfit I must say. Everything there was done professionally for a team at that level. For example, we were camping before games. Now, the thing is that the team was made up mainly of township players, and obviously they were not used to things like sleeping in hotels and having pre-match meals. So, I remember this one time we were camping at Protea Hotel and enjoying our pre-match meal. Themba Zwane and Wambi were eating everything in front of them, you would swear that was their last day on earth. When the time to go and play came, the guys suddenly developed allergies. They couldn’t play, ha, ha, ha! It was so funny, more so because for these guys, like I said, it was the first time they were inside a hotel. I remember very well they kept saying to each other, “What if asibuyi la? Kufanele sidle ndoda (we aren’t coming back here? We have to indulge, brother).” But it was nice, man.

You can take them out of the kasi, but you can’t take the kasi out of them.

We also used to play in kasi tournaments and I remember one time we were on our way to Duduza to play against a team called Izinyokanyoka. Before we got there, we had to cross a tollgate. Obviously, Zwane wasn’t used to all of this, so he nudged me and said, “Biza, tell me, why are we crossing the border gate here?” Ha, ha, ha, I had to tell him, “No, this is actually a tollgate.” You see, just like Masilo Modubi, “Mshishi” has this serious look about him, but he was a very, very funny guy. But a cool guy overall. I think he has no problem differentiating between a tollgate and a border gate these days because he travels a lot with Mamelodi Sundowns, locally and into Africa. Then there was Jacob Sakala…

Oh yes, the inimitable “Cellular”! Ha, ha, ha, he was the funniest coach ever! We had Jacky Ledwaba as one of our strikers in the team. Do you remember him?

We remember him well. He won the league’s Golden Boot one season…

We had a good team at City Pillars – I’m talking about the likes of Teko Modise, (Jacob) “Dukes” Machaka, Harry Machidi. Although the latter couldn’t make it to a higher level, he was an extremely good player. A lot of the goals Ledwaba scored were from his crosses. So, there was this one game we were playing, but I can’t really remember who we were up against on the day. Machidi kept feeding Ledwaba with crosses, but the latter just wasn’t having any luck finding the back of the net. Teko also thread some through passes for him, where he would find himself in one-on-one situations with the goalkeeper, but he would fluff the opportunities. I also did my fair share of assisting, to no avail. Until Sakala got tired of it all and hauled him off, installing Simon Makhubela in his place. We just heard the coach saying, “Jacky, woza (come)! Woza! Woza!” and knew that Ledwaba’s huffing and puffing was over. And the funniest part is that as he was coming out, facing towards the coach, Sakala didn’t want to shake his hand. Well, that’s not even the end of the story. We seemed to be experiencing a striker curse because what was happeni ngw ith Ledwaba during his God-knows-how-long stint on the pitch was now befalling Makhubela. The service was tops, but the guy was missing chances like it was going out of fashion. And guess what?

Huh?

Sakala didn’t hesitate to take him off, ha, ha, ha. Imagine… two substitutions in the first half! T oma k ema tters worse, h ea lso wanted nothing to do with shaking Makhubela’s hand. The way he did it, as the player stretched out his hand to greet him, the coach just turned around and made as if he was talking to the bench. Mind you, these were big players. Ledwaba had been signed from Ria Stars, while Makhubela was coming from Orlando Pirates. No beating about the bush about it, they were our top strikers. Then, during the course of the game, Sakala saw Ledwaba and Makhubela sitting on the bench, threw his hands in the air and then said, “Jackie, Simon, ngubani onikhiphile (who took you out)? Is someone trying to get me fired here?” Ha, ha, ha, Jacob Sakala for you! But the players loved him hey, and they always wanted to play for him. He was and still remains what you call a players’ coach.

What a funny guy!

Then we had Elias Ngwepe at Sundowns, whom I touched on last week. Sometimes you would find that he had been included in the 18-man matchday squad, and then Surprise Moriri would say, “Mokgalabje, o kenne (you are in) this week.” The two of them used to call each other ‘Mokgalabje’. And then Ngwepe would respond, “But I’ll just be there on the bench, I’m just accompanying you guys.” Ha, ha, ha, that used to kill me. It was nice and fun at Sundowns, man. The professionalism and team spirit was always there. Before the club had a kitchen, there was a guy called Makepisi selling food next to Chloorkop. All the guys would go there and buy food after training. I remember I had just arrived at the club and Surprise said to me, “You’re still a small boy, you’re just here to buy ice.” Ha, ha, ha. After buying the food, the guys would eat and then we would go our separate ways until the next day’s training session. But I must reiterate that Zwane was a funny guy! It’s nice to see someone going through the amateur ranks and reaching the highest level and still being as humble as he always was and still leading the way he used to. Well, for me, it was not the first time seeing someone come through the ranks and going all the way, as it was the case with the likes of my former School of Excellence teammates Modubi, Steven Pienaar, Daine Klate, Dillon Sheppard…

Go on, brother.

Manqoba Ngwenya was lazy, but mamela

(listen), he knew football. He is one of the best left-footed guys I’ve ever played with. But when it came to running, he was not a fan of that. When we were outrunning him at training, he would say, “When we are playing, I want to see you outrunning me like that.” Humble guy too. Now, let me tell you about an arrogant and talented player, Lunga, and that is the late Gift Leremi. I still remember the first day he came to train with us at Sundowns after signing for the club, and he was holding his boots with his hands. Then he started screaming, “Vuyo Mere, you are now rubbing shoulders with Gift Leremi! Woza, boy.” The guys were all taken back, and you could hear them whispering, “Lo mfana lo

(This boy), first day, and he’s talking like this!?” In that session, he was shooting like nobody’s business. You know whenever we were doing shooting drills, you had to go and fetch your ball after shooting. Not with Gift. He would just grab a ball from anyone, he didn’t care. After training, he said, “Vuyo Mere, tomorrow is still another day. You’re still going to rub shoulders with Gift Leremi, so don’t worry!” Ha, ha, ha, Mere was not impressed at all and said, “Lo ngizomkhaba (I’m going to kick this one).” After that, they became friends. Gift knew football. What a player!