WeeklySA_AdminTALENT: Safa leadership has instead lost focus and involved in internal squabbles.
TWENTY-One years ago after our men’s Olympics football team qualified for this prestigious sports festival, South Africa was full of hope for good performances in Australia where they were heading to.
The composition of our squad then coupled with enthusiasm from coach, Ephraim “Shakes” Mashaba, were the reasons why Mzansi had high hopes that we could show resilience through our emerging football talent, that we can also match the best in the world.
Mashaba, unlike our Tokyo Olympics 2020 – bound football team coach, David Notoane, had players who proved their quality in previous international competitions. Talented players who come to mind and who set tongues wagging then included Benni McCarthy who was already playing abroad for Celta Virgo in Spain. There were also Quinton Fortune (Manchester United) and Aaron “Mbazo” Mokoena (Ajax Amsterdam). On the local front there were roar-makers in the guise of Jabu “Shuffle” Pule (Kaizer Chiefs) and Orlando Pirates’ Steve “Chippa” Lekoelea.
From athletics we boasted the 1996 Atlanta Olympics marathon gold medalist, Josiah Thugwana, and there were also world beaters in the likes of Hestrie Cloete (high-jump), Hezekiel Sepeng (800m), Terrence Parkin (swimming) and five-star swimmer, Penelope Heyns.
The team, apart from having had thorough preparations, was also oozing with confidence. Players like McCarthy were any way part of Mashaba’s team that contested in the CAF U-21 Championship before losing 1-0 to hosts, Morocco, in their final in 1997. But since wishes are not horses, Mashaba’s squad lost two of their three fixtures in Sydney. However, they managed to chalk out one memorable win, a thorough 3-1 thrashing of Brazil, nogal.
Fast forward to 2021, some of those quality players we had in the Mashaba squad and who later turned up for the senior team, Bafana Bafana, are either highly qualified coaches and are also part-time football match analysts on TV. McCarthy who has a UEFA Pro Licence ,is head coach of the current DStv Premiership title runners-up AmaZulu while Fortune who a few days ago also got the same licence, is manager of English First Division side, Reading.
To top it all, Mzansi sent that buoyant Olympics team to Down Under flying in the multi-coloured painted Ndizani airplane.
Perhaps, dear reader, you are wondering what happened to those efforts of unearthing and giving exposure to local talent with determination and vigour. Well, my humble observation from the touchline is that the SAFA leadership has turned to be more of theorists who have lost focus, except for internal squabbles emanating from alleged bullying tactics.
It is for this reason and perhaps other hidden ones that our first participation in the Olympics on the football side in 2000 was a mere fluke. This considering that the next one at the Rio Olympics in 2016 proved to be a damp squib by our Under-23 national team.
That said, we also have to admit that the athletes heading for Japan, be they in individual or team events, for good measure, are certainly not as ready as those of the previous Olympics – also due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Let’s deviate. Kaizer Chiefs made us proud last Saturday when they out-foxed Morocco’s Wydad Athletic Club 1-0 on aggregate in their CAF Champions League semi-final clash, after their away victory a week earlier in the first-leg.
At the moment that’s what counts considering that Amakhosi are where they are through the efforts of coach, Gavin Hunt, who was later shown the exit after the semis only to be replaced by his novice assistants Arthur “10111” Zwane and Dillon Sheppard. To the latter duo we say: “Siyabonga madoda!”
# Molefi Mika is an author of two non-fiction books: Resilient Ntate Molemela and Dance Siwelele.
