Doc’s memory lane

Coach Augusto never wanted players to come in dribs and drabs for lunch or dinner. We had to arrive and leave at the same time. At national team, we were camping and playing Nigeria in December and Augusto got SAFA to book the whole cinema for the players to go and watch movies, just to take their minds off football. He spent a lot of time trying to understand the different languages we spoke and our culture. Steve Komphela, the late Samuel Ewie Kambule, Jazzy Queen Legodi and Harris Choeu were in breakfast with coach Palacios and he asked them how do you say “Hello” in Zulu? Jazzy answered, “Mas@#*akho” and the very next person coach Augusto was to use that line to was me. He says to me, in his heavy accent, “Hey Doctor, Mas@#*akho”, and I was like, “Why is this man swearing at me?”’ and then he continued to ‘greet’ us like that and we eventually asked him if he knew what he was saying? He then told us he was greeting and then we told him he was actually swearing at us and he was so mad at Jazzy because he’s the one who ‘taught’ him Zulu, ha, ha, ha.