How Baroka rocked a village
HARD YARDS: Baroka FC players go through their paces during a training session at the Ngwana Mohube Sports Ground in Seleteng, GaMphahlele, in Limpopo GIVEN Mphahlele always tries to ensure that she is done cooking and preparing supper for her family by 4.30pm on weekdays so she can catch at least the last hour of the training sessions of Absa Premier Soccer League side Baroka FC.
The club, enjoying its maiden season in the elite league after winning promotion in May, trains at the Ngwana Mohube Sports Ground just a few hundred metres from Given’s home in Seleteng.
The tranquil village surrounded by picturesque hills forms part of the Ga-Mphahlele district which falls under the Nkumpi-Lepelle municipality in Limpopo.
About 50km from the capital Polokwane, the area is like many rural communities ravaged by poverty, unemployment and general lack of basic facilities.
According to the Statistics SA 2011 Census, Ga-Mphahlele is home to 12 661 people from 3 042 households. Only 16.7% of those have piped water and only 0.9% are connected to a sewerage system.
Ngwana Mohube Sports Ground on the main road that cuts through the village is not the sort of facility you would expect a PSL team to call home. In fact, if it weren’t for the large billboard towering over passers-by declaring it home to Baroka FC, you would mistake it for a field where has-beens have a Sunday kickabout.
An old white painted brick building that was once an office now serves as a change room for the enthusiastic, youthful players who appear to have embraced their surroundings.
Inside the building of which the bright outside walls are emblazoned with an impressive drawing of a porcupine, the club emblem, there is nothing bar a dozen green plastic chairs and bags of fertiliser heaped in a corner behind the door.
There is no sign of the amenities one would expect in a change room of even a semiprofessional team, a massage table, mirrors or even showers. But to the people of Seleteng and GaMphahlele this is the home of their pride and joy. To the players who go through their paces on the field to the bleating of goats and lowing of cattle in the background, this is home and as they say, there is no place like home.
“Baroka is our big team. It’s the pride of us Bakgaga,” says Given. On this day she had an urgent errand to run which made her miss her favourite pastime of watching Baroka train. But she is not deterred.
She stops often to watch the players go about their paces. Even motorists and passers-by have an unobstructed view of proceedings on the field. Although it’s exhilarating for adoring fans, Baroka captain Olaleng Shaku is worried this may give opponents a perfect opportunity to spy on them.
But die-hard fans such as Sammy Mphahlele are ecstatic about having the opportunity to watch their heroes train.
“We come a long way with this club,” says Sammy about the humble beginnings of the LANDMARK: A young man walks past the Ngwana Mohube Sports Ground in Seleteng TATTERED: The Baroka FC flag flies high above the Ngwana Mohube Sports Ground club which started in the amateur ranks and worked its way up to the PSL.
“It’s a blessing to watch our team train. We always thought this was something only for people in urban areas. But here we are now,” Sammy says.
Given says she hardly misses a training session and enjoys them more than home games she watches at Peter Mokaba Stadium in Polokwane. NEW PREMISES: Business is booming at the Baroka tuck shop run by Nkopodi Mphahlele HUMBLE: Baroka kit manager Sporo cleans up in the change room as players train outside
Though nowhere near Soweto giants Orlando Pirates or Kaizer Chiefs in stature and following, in GaMphahlele the boys in green and yellow are revered as heroes who have brought pride and joy to this rural village where the most popular entertainment and leisure is at liquor outlets.
It has also seen an improvement in the fortunes of small businessmen such as Baldwin Nkopodi Mphahlele, who used to run a spaza from a little zinc shack on the grounds of Ngwana Mohube Sports Ground. Nowadays, because of the number of people who come to watch Baroka train or play training matches at the venue, his business is booming and he has moved into a brick tuck shop painted in the colours of Baroka.
“The longer they stay in the PSL, then this business will continue to grow,” says Nkopodi, also a die-hard fan.
“Baroka has really changed our lives. People didn’t know that there is a place like Seleteng. Now the club has put our place on the map,” he says.
Locals like Jackson Tumelo Mashapa who have long been starved of entertainment and exposure to big-time football, have made attending the club’s afternoon training sessions a daily pilgrimage.
On an uncharacteristic cold, windy summer’s day, he sips from a cold beer bottle as he and other loyal fans watch coach Kgoloko Thobejane take his charges through their paces.
“We will remain with the people through thick and thin. We are loyal to the team. If we are not rallying behind these guys then we will never go anywhere. Attending a practice session is a motivation to the guys,” says Mashapa, who wishes the club continues with the tradition of training at Ngwana Mohube and opening the sessions to the public.
“It will be a setback to the supporters if the team is taken away from the people.”
Another loyal supporter, Steven Mokweni, whom fellow fans have nicknamed Khoza, says Baroka’s promotion to the elite league has had an impact not only on a sporting level but socially as well.
“The club has helped our children to move away from the street. On weekends they are able to travel to Polokwane to watch the club play. When Baroka plays on weekends you won’t find anyone in the streets,” says Khoza, watching the training session from the comfort of his car.
“It has brought joy to everyone, the royal family, schools, everyone is singing about Baroka. People never believed that we could have a PSL team here. Now young boys are kicking a ball everywhere.
“They start to imitate what they see in their neighbourhood,” he says.
In 2011, while still campaigning in the amateur Vodacom league, Baroka caused a historic upset in local football when they bundled the glamour boys of local football, Kaizer Chiefs, out of the Nedbank Cup with a 2-1 victory.
Khoza identifies this famous victory as the one that made the team believe they could go all the way to the PSL where they are campaigning.
“When we were growing up we never imagined that we could ever have a professional club here in the village,” says Khoza, himself a former prolific amateur player in the 80s.
“Many people like myself who used to play football are now following the club because the boys are living the dreams we could not achieve.”
With the same steely determination he displays on the field, Shaku says the issue of their humble surroundings counts for nothing.
“It’s a matter of how far you want to go with your football. That you don’t have a shower and the ground is not up to the standard of other big teams doesn’t matter. We work hard.”