Maritzburg to honour Cele
Midfielder’s death may inspire a second half revival for strugglers
IT TOOK a while for Orlando Pirates to move past the death of goalkeeper Senzo Meyiwa, and with his killers still at large, his teammates are still desperate for closure.
When Richard Henyekane died in a car crash in April last year, Free State owner Mike Mokoena adopted a win-bonus per match approach to get them over the line as they fought back to avoid relegation. And in the Mother City, it wasn’t until three days ago that local club Ajax Cape Town claimed their first victory since the tragic death of defender Cecil Lolo in October.
At around 5am on Sunday, the South African football fraternity was robbed of another talent when the lifeless body of Mondli Cele was pulled from a wreckage after the car the Maritzburg United midfielder was driving veered off the road and plunged into the Duzi River.
Cele, 27, was an influential player in a team that has had the worst possible start to the season, bringing in Ernst Middendorp as the club’s third coach even though the campaign is a game shy of reaching the halfway mark. The loss of a bright spark in midfield – and a decent finisher as evidenced by the goal he scored in the 3-3 draw against Pirates hours before he died – is a massive blow to their survival hopes.
“I believe his teammates will want to play in Mondli’s memory,” said chairman Farook Kadodia, who has already made plans to bring in trauma psychologists to help the Maritzburg players deal with Cele’s tragic passing. “We are fully aware that it is going to be a mental battle for us and that is why we are happy the league game against Golden Arrows on Saturday has been postponed. That gives us a little bit of a breather and then we can take it game by game.”
New coach Middendorp’s task gets even tougher when they resume their league programme on January 29 away to a side all too familiar with the grieving process in Ajax.
Although Cele had struggled with form, much like the entire squad, with the club rooted to the bottom of the table and having only managed a paltry eight points from 14 matches, what we witnessed at Pirates, Free State Stars and Ajax shows the extent an unexpected death of one of your own can have on how you go about your business.
“It’s important for the coach to step in and use his own football experience to deal with the situation. As the management we have to play our part and get professionals to help the players get over this ordeal. We are well aware of how other clubs have suffered from similar circumstance before,” Kadodia said. “We have no illusions about how tough it is going to be to move up the table after dealing with a tragedy. But there should also be an inspiration to want to play for Mondli.”