CASRIC STARS’ ABRAM NGCOBO (PART 1)
Hola Abram. It’s great to have you with us this week and we should probably go back to the beginning, which is Mamelodi Sundowns. Let’s start with some hilarious memories you have from your time with the Tshwane giants.
The story I want to start with is when I was at Mamelodi Sundowns. It was during the month of Ramadhan. You know they (Muslims) have the attire that they wear. So, there was this day when Denis Onyango came to training wearing Muslim attire that looks like a dress. I don’t know if it was his attire or if he was wearing it because it was Ramadhan. When he got into the dressing room, everyone was laughing. He was greeting everyone, and Kennedy Mweene was sitting in the corner. So, Kennedy said: ‘Hey Denis, what are you wearing?’ Then Denis responded and said ‘I am wearing my dress’. So, Kennedy said ‘You are probably wearing a G-string under all of that’.
Ha, ha, ha. That was a low blow from Kennedy…
The entire dressing room just cracked in laughter. We were all laughing. That was one of the best and funniest moments I experienced, ha, ha, ha.
Great story to start off with. Let’s move on to the next one…
When I was in the Sundowns development, we were taken to Clapham High School. I was new in the school, and I remember I was getting lost because I did not fully understand how the system worked. Throughout the day, we did not stay in one class because we had different class periods, but I didn’t quite understand that in the beginning. We had to change classes every period, but when the bell rang after the first period, I remained in the same class. I was thinking that a different teacher was going to come and teach in the same class I was sitting in. I was not aware that I had to leave the classroom and go to another one for my next period.
Ha, ha, ha. That’s crazy. So, what happened next? I had previously gone to a school in the township, so I was used to sitting in one class the whole day and not moving around to go to the next classroom. So, while I was sitting in the classroom, the teacher asked me why I did not leave to go to my next class. She told me to go to my next class, but the problem is that by the time I went to my next class, the period was over, ha, ha, ha.
Ha, ha, ha. You were clearly having a rough day…
Ha, ha, ha. I was getting lost the whole day at school that day, so I ended up not attending any classes at all because I did not understand what was happening.
You did not attend even one class? Ha, ha, ha.
Whenever I got to a class, the bell would ring to say that the period is over, ha, ha, ha. It was a crazy day. I was new at the school, and I was from the township. So, I would get to the class late. By the time I sat explained things properly to me. That’s where I got to see that the schools in the city and the ones in the township are not the same. Another problem was that my English was not good at all at the time. I was in grade 10. I passed my first year and then I failed when I was in grade 11. English was a problem because we did not speak English in the township. Even when we sang the school anthem, I could not sing it. It was bad. But I was not the only one, ha, ha, ha. There were a few others.
It sounds like you have something else to share with us…
There is this guy called Notha Ngcobo. He was with us in the Sundowns development. There was a day when he had a runny stomach at school. They asked him what the problem was and he said: ‘I ate yellow rice’. Then he said: ‘It was yellow like Sundowns’, ha, ha, ha. Everyone in the class laughed.
Ha, ha, ha. That’s actually not a bad way of describing it…
Ha, ha, ha. But that’s when I saw that English is a problem. So, there were a couple of guys who had issues with their stomachs, and they referred them to the clinic.
Because of that yellow rice?
Yeah, us who were from Sundowns had that yellow rice the previous night for supper. I think it was only two guys who really had a problem with their stomachs, but the rest of us used it as an opportunity to start faking it, so that we could also go to the clinic. When we got to the clinic, they gave us medication and told us to go back to class, but we told them we wanted to go play football, ha, ha, ha.
So, it was just tactics so that you could go play football, ha, ha, ha.
Yeah, we just wanted to play football. We just used Notha’s situation to skip class and they bought our story. They took us to the clinic. When we got to the clinic, we were making noise, forgetting that we said we were sick, ha, ha, ha.
Ha, ha, ha. What a crazy story, but let’s leave it there for this week. Thank you so much for your time this week, Abram. Judging by what you’ve shared with us this week, there is good reason to look forward to more of your stories next week in part two.
Ha, ha, ha. Thank you. I’ve got a couple of stories from my time at Marumo Gallants.