WeeklySA_AdminVISIONARY:Cyril Kobus pioneered the National Soccer League
By Staff Reporter
Football lovers across South Africa are mourning the death of retired football administrator Cyril Kobus who was laid to rest in Soweto this week.
Kobus has been described by former fellow professionals as having been among the pioneers of the National Soccer League in the eighties. And as having been an intelligent man who had enjoyed the use of big words in discussions. Others have praised Kobus for contributed to the South African liberation struggle in many ways, including helping with the exhumation and reburial of the remains of Black Consciousness Movement activist Tsietsi Mashinini who had led the student’s campaign against Bantu Education in 1976.
“We learnt of the passing of one of the brain trusts in the formation of the National Soccer League in 1985, Mr Cyril Kobus,” said DSTV Premier Soccer League chairman Dr Irvin Khoza this week, saying Kobus’ passing had happened six months after the demise of former NSL public relations officer Abdul Bhamjee.
“As the PSL, we extend our condolences to the son, Mr Mxolisi Kobus and the rest of the immediate and extended Kobus family. The football fraternity is poorer with the loss of such mammoth institutional memory,” Khoza said, and had then quoted the East African saying, “When the elder dies, the library burns down.”
Another Kobus peer and Premier Soccer League club Kaizer Chiefs chairman Kaizer Motaung said that he had first met the late football administrator when they attended Orlando High School together and were also youthful soccer players for rival teams. “I had played for Orlando Pirates and he had been with City Blacks,” said Motaung. “Mr Kobus was an intelligent man who always enjoyed the use of big words in discussions.”
Kobus, who was in Cape Town on 31 July 1944, grew up in Eesterust, Pretoria. His family was among thousands of people who were forcibly relocated from Eesterust to Walmansthall North of Pretoria in the wake of the dreaded Group Areas Act.
The young Kobus had later relocated to Soweto to live with his father, step-mother Debra, and siblings, Nombuyiselo and Nomonde. Kobus had excelled in academics and sports, and he matriculated at Orlando High School, where he met his future wife, Justina Ntomncane Motha, whom he married in Soweto in 1970, and she bore him a son, Mxolisi, in 1971. Kobus – who was commonly known and admired for his infectious, hearty laugh and beaming smile – cut his teeth as an administrator at a top petroleum company, and had transferred these skills to the football arena, albeit on a volunteer basis, while he played football fulltime for local soccer team, Mzimhlope City Blacks.
The Pan Africanist Congress this week credited Kobus with having made his contribution to the struggle through several acts of community building support, including “helping with the exhumation and reburial of the body of Black Consciousness Movement of Azania student leader Tsietsi Mashinini. This noble act he undertook along with the former NSL manager Abdul Bhamjee”.
Kobus is survived by his sister, his son, and several grandchildren. In a tribute delivered yesterday at a memorial service at the Rosebank , friend and businessman Vusi Sithole said Kobus’s name was synonymous with the history of South African football. “Not only did he prove himself to be an astute administrator but also a leader of note that this sporting code of soccer has produced,” Sithole said. “This was a man whose stardom shone through as someone who had his finger on the pulse of the nation”.
In the wake of the June 16, 1976 uprisings, political leaders could count on the leadership of Cyril Kobus, along that of Kaizer Moutaung, Irvin Khoza and Abdul Bhamjee to align the soccer fraternity calendar in respect of the June16 commemorations. Kobus’s sense of history was insightful as he galvanised the football fraternity behind the liberation struggle of this country.
“Many still remember that it was Cyril Kobus and Abdul Bhamjee that put their best feet forward to offer support for the exhumation of student Tsietsi Mashinini’s body in Liberia for reburial back on home soil in South Africa in 1990,” said Sithole.
He noted that Kobus’ demise came six months after that of his flamboyant soccer associate, Abdul Bhamjee, who passed away in January this year.
Kobus left behind a solid legacy upon which seasoned football leaders like Kaizer Motaung, Patrice Motsepe and Irvin Khoza could build.
“Condolences to immediate and extended Kobus family members. Fare thee well, Bra Cyril. May his soul rest in peace”.
