Still in Touch with KATLEHO LOKE (PART 2)
Part 2 couldn’t have come soon enough, as we’ve been anxious to continue with the interesting conversation around alleged muti usage among players at Orlando Pirates during your playing days. It seems Special Projects, not just among teams but players themselves, used to happen, even though there’s always been a veil of secrecy around them.
Of course. MaLungas, people were warning me, especially my former teammates, the likes of Thabo Mngomeni, ama grootman (the older guys). They would come to me and say, “Hey mf’ethu (brother), you must be careful here. Here it’s dangerous, mfanakithi (my boy). You’ve got to be careful of players you are sharing a position with.” He used to like saying, “Bazokuloya la mfanakithi. Angekhe udlale la uma ungasukumi uqine
(They are going to bewitch you here. You will never play here if you don’t stand up and protect yourself). You can’t keep telling yourself that you are praying because we are all praying.” I was sharing a position with Steve Lekoelea, Josep Ngake and sometimes Brandon Silent would come on the side. So, there would be those kinds of comments to say, “Hey mf’ethu, you see these people that you are sharing a position with, they are not small boys. Do you think hore (that) bona
they just pray and then play? Or do you think they would let you walk into their positions just like that?” So, there were those warnings regarding the individuals I was sharing a position with.
Quite interesting indeed. We’re sure some of our older readers are reminded of Jimmy Kauleza, who once came out in Soccer Laduma to say that he thought his teammates at Bucs were putting a spell on him as he experienced a prolonged drought in front of goal. Maybe they put something in his boots, ha, ha, ha. You know MaLungas, I remember one time, (Benedict) “Tso” Vilakazi said to me, “Scooter, stop leaving your boots in the team. Hamba nama boots wakho ndoda (Go home with your boots, man).” He used to go with his boots and he was playing regularly at Pirates and he would score goals. The two of us were promoted together (in the) same year when we came back from France to play for the U20 national team. But he was playing and I was not playing, and he said to me, “Scooter, you’ll never play ndoda, stop leaving your boots here.” And one thing that never sat well with me is that these kit managers were not allowing us to take our boots home, but Tso used to take his boots home. So, some things were confusing to us and now you didn’t know who to listen to or who not to listen to. Tso can take his boots home, Loke isn’t allowed to take his boots home – what is the problem? When I reported for training, I just went as I was and I would find the boots there waiting for me. I would get kitted out and then go onto the field. As for what they were doing with those boots ,my bro, you will never know. Because sometimes people will think muti is being used as an excuse or that I’m angry because I never played, but bro yam, if you believe in something… if you believe in muti, muti will work for you. If you don’t believe in it, it will work against you because people don’t sleep, bro yam, just to make things happen for themselves. People sacrifice other people for them to be okay. Unfortunately, that’s the sad part. It’s sad because the talent that you have does not go alone, it goes with some other things to other people. former teammate of his at Free State Stars apparently put a spell on him whereby he would be all fine at home, but as soon as he stepped onto the training pitch, his ankle would give him problems. He says he had to call the club’s p h y sio to come home with him, and indeed, according to Oliver, the physio witnessed that his injury status changed when he was not at training. Fascinating! You know, we meet these people that have been doing wrong things to us and even now at Masters (games), we still see them, but now it is sad (difficult) to say their names because we are still playing together. But they know themselves and why they did that to us. It is so sad to mention somebody’s name in these things of witchcraft. Someone will tell you, “Loke, Thabang is bewitching you.” I’m making an example. How does that person know that that’s the person who’s doing all those things to you? Then you come out and mention someone’s name, saying he’s the one who’s doing this and that to me, (but) what proof do you have? I don’t have any proof and then the next thing I’ll be looked at with scorn. But the person who was doing those things knows himself.
You did say that when you got promoted to the Buccaneers’ first team, muti was the last thing on your mind. Now, after that experience, and having now moved to Benoni Premier United, did you then start using it, maybe as a way of protecting yourself rather than visiting harm on others? Not at all. When I got there, I got a chance to play. The team is not using muti, I have my own soccer boots with me, we’re all young players there, we’re all hungry to play soccer. There were no big names, only youngsters, we joined a team that was not using muti, we joined a team that had a boss who believed in young boys who can play football, so I never had a chance to think about all those muti things and whatever. The only thing that happened when I joined Benoni was that bengivaleka umoya (I suffered from breathlessness) and when that happened, it was like I was dying out there on the pitch. Mr (Dumisani) Ndlovu (ex-club chairman) then took me to someone, who checked me and then found idliso (spiritual poison). He said ngidlisiwe (I’ve been made to ingest this poison), and that’s when the name of the person who put that idliso in me from
Pirates was revealed. That is why I was always injured and I couldn’t breathe. But since I joined Benoni from 2001, I never got that sickness yokuvaleka umoya (of breathlessness) ever again, up until today. So, Mr Ndlovu took me to somewhere in Mpumalanga to that man and that man was telling me that, “So-and-so at Pirates is the one who’s doing these things to you. Do you want me to take them back to him?” You know, I said, “Hayi (No) man, nna I just wanna play soccer. As long as you can heal me. Heal me, let me enjoy my football because I don’t know all these things. It’s the first time I’m hearing all these things.” That’s when I was like more careful, more aware, I’m now seeing things on a different level, to say mf’ethu, you can pray as much as you want, but there are other people that are cruel out there, who will do things to you ungabhekanga. Bakushaye ungabhekanga (when you’re not looking. They will hit you when you’re not looking), bro yam!
So, when the inyanga revealed the name of the guy who had put that spell on you at Pirates, were you at all surprised?
I was not surprised at all, Lungas, because even the older guys there, they warned me about certain individuals there at Pirates that I was sharing a position with. Like I said, the Thabo Mngomenis, the Gerald Raphahlelas, those magrootman (senior guys) warned me and said, “Loke, mfanakithi, you must be careful of one, two, three. This is what is going to happen.” Those were the things that were said to me. Even this man that I went to didn’t know that I was playing for Pirates, I just went there. Unless Mr Ndlovu told him that this boy played for Pirates, there is a problem one, two, three… and then that person went on to tell me what he told me. He told me the same thing that ama grootman told me when I was playing for Pirates. He said, “Ndoda (Man), you must watch out for this and this and this. These people are very, very dangerous.” That’s when I said to myself, ‘He banna, this means ma-grootman were telling me the truth at Pirates. They were not jealous ukuthi (that) maybe I was associating myself with those kind of players, they were telling me the truth. If this thing was like real, wena Lungas, mf’ethu, and I had proof, I was gonna tell you the name! I was gonna be open and tell you the name and say, ‘MaLungas, so-and-so did this to me.’