THAPELO LESHABANE
Welcome back, Thapelo, and we obviously can’t wait to find out what this week’s instalment has in store. After your time at Orlando Pirates ended, in which direction did you then go? When the season ended, myself, Gerald Modabi, Isaac Chansa, Cavaan Sibeko, “Cafu” (Mpho Rashete) and two others that I can’t remember now were put on the transfer list. We then started training with the reserve side under Augusto Palacios at Mayfair. That’s when they were assembling the team that went on to win two trebles. So, they told us they would be giving us our severance pay, we were being retrenched and all that. We were football players and didn’t know much about such stuff, so they told us they would be paying us one week’s salary for every season, ha, ha, ha. But ey, mina I’m a man of faith, mf’ethu (my brother), I believe in Jesus Christ, so I would pray not only for myself but for other people who were in the same boat with me. And amazingly, when we went to training at Mayfair, you would find that one player was no longer there, he had found a team, and then after two days, another one was not there, he had found a team, ha, ha, ha. But now you start to worry because you’re praying and you’re happy that people are getting teams, but there’s nothing happening for you. Hey, mf’ethu! That was up until the day of the meeting where we had to get our severance pay and our clearances.
Tell us about the meeting… When I got there, by the grace of God, I remember Mr Floyd Mbele asked me, “What do you want here?” I said, “No, I’m on the list because I got a letter that’s talking about today, this date.” Then he said, “No, you were supposed to be in Durban by now.” I said, “No one communicated with me,” and then he told me, “Okay, you are going to Durban then.” That’s when I left for Thanda Royal Zulu. Again, I never negotiated a contract. I went there with this guy called
Josias Mphono and then they gave himacontract and they also gave it to me and I saw it. I was happy because this was good money and I was also going to get a signing-on fee. This was the second time I was getting a signing-on fee, although the one from Pirates was not even close to R100 000, and you must know this was the first time in football I was seeing at least R120 000! And with that R120 000, I bought myself a place to stay near Alexandra in the location. It was a twobedroom flat.
Beautiful. It also goes to show how things have changed in the game, because these days, R120 000 for a signing-on fee is small change. Some of the top players get paid that as a salary.
That was the first time that imali yebhola ikhona ukungibeka
(football money could put me) somewhere and I get to be comfortable, uyang’thola (you get my point)? Now this guy (Mphono) naye (as well) wanted to rob me and whatnot, but like I say, the story of my life… eventually, by God’s grace, things turned out well. I called Floyd and told him, “Hee maan, when I came here to sign, I came with this person and this is the story he’s telling me.” According to this man, he was entitled to 10% for negotiating the contract and then he wanted to take 10% from my salary every month, and mind you I had a two-year contract. Then he wanted 10% of the signing-on fee, and he wanted to take it all at once. So, from the R120 000, I had to get R34 000, according to this guy, and now I had issues. I didn’t have a place to call my own. It was frustrating. But I called Floyd and he said, “No, khululeka
(relax), that won’t happen.” Remember this person did the same thing with “Mphasha” … I forget his full name.
Yes, Hadebe. This guy’s signing-on fee was paid into the agent’s account. The same guy negotiated the contract of Norman Smith, but I don’t know if he did the same to him. Mina ngakhuluma (I spoke) with the (Thanda) team manager, I explained everything to him, as well as to Floyd… he was good to me from the time I was at Pirates and even when I left. Very humble guy. The team manager said, “No, your money will be paid into your account since you’ve paid the commission. For this deal, we have paid this person his commission.” So, because he knew I didn’t know, he wanted to take the team’s money and mine as well. Uyabona mina (You see, with me), there’s always something. Everything of mine is war, ha, ha, ha, but God always fights for me. Then we played at Thanda, it was okay and I met good people, like Joseph Kibe. That’s one person I was close to and he was a good man. Then the season ended, we got relegated. After relegation, we heard that there was a consortium that was taking over the team. They brought in Mr (Professor) Ngubane and when he got there, we were told… we were not being asked to negotiate contracts, they told us straight, “We are not going to pay you what you were getting last season.” But we had contracts! We’ve got families. You can’t just tell us. We had to consult our families and tell them that, ‘Okay, this is the situation, so what do you say? Is it worth it now?’ But then the club said, ‘Take it or leave it!’ Now it’s another issue, and then I’m thinking, ‘Forever in football I’m going to live like this? No, I can’t!’
It was decision time.
Then something happened at home, but I can’t remember what it was, and then I asked to go back home. When I got there, I received an email with a contract, which said, ‘Sign this contract or else don’t come back.’ That’s when I got into a dispute with the team because I couldn’t sign that thing, meaning I couldn’t go back. I went to the Players Union, they took it over and then it became a case against Thanda Royal Zulu. The first time I lost the case, the Players Union appealed, I won the appeal, and then the team put in an appeal, ha, ha, ha. We then went into arbitration and I ended up getting almost nothing… almost nothing. That’s when I quit and I said, ‘No, let me try to do something here in the township.’ Like I said, I had good friends and a good background. My friend Tshepo Mphake had started a company, so I started working with him and everything went well. Ngaziphilela la elokishini (I started living my own life here in the township), up to now. You see, at least apart from the fact that I played away from Alexandra for Dynamos and I played in Durban, I’ve always been a kasi person. I was always in the township with abafowethu (my brothers) and I lived normally. We would walk from this place to that place, and when we were entertaining ourselves, we would be together. We were used to each other, so it’s not like I had to come back and try to reintegrate back to my community and adjust. No, nothing really changed about me and that’s why I’m okay even now.
You can take Thapelo out of Gomora, but you can never take Gomora out of Thapelo, we get it! Ja, ja, ja, true, mf’ethu.