WeeklySA_AdminSHOCK: Body of former midfield maestro discovered days after he passed on at home
By Ali Mphaki
The football fraternity has been plunged into mourning following the death of yet another former Moroka Swallows star Alfred “KK” Lentsoane – his lifeless body found slumped on the sofa of his dining room days after he had passed on.
Last seen by his Protea North, Soweto, neighbours Wednesday on September 20, it was a fortuitous visit by a friend this Monday morning which led to the horror discovery after incessant knocks on his gate went unanswered forcing neighbours to fell his high wall fence to gain entry into the house.
Lentsoane was living alone and in the middle of a divorce.
His death comes on the heels of another Swallws great James “Akulalwa” Mabena who was buried at the weekend.
A geography teacher by profession, Lentsoane would have celebrated his 71st birthday Wednesday, September 27.
The Kliptown-born Lentsoane, who also went by the moniker “Nanana” because of his tiny frame, grew up in Dube after his family moved, started playing his football with local Cimmaron City, and also played for the famous Morris Isaacson High, the school credited with being the springboard of the 1976 Soweto uprisings.
He was signed into the Moroka Swallows books by then club boss David “Pine” Chabeli (with no signing-on fee) in 1974, joining one of the best assembled Birds squads ever.
This is where he teamed up with the likes of goalminder Welcome “Star Black” Jama , Lazarus “Junior” Nhleko, Jonas “Paradise” Sello, and George “Mastermind Kgobe.
In the middle he competed for the jersey with luminaries such as Daniel “Vader” Mophosho, Zimbabwean import, Gearge Shaya, Noble “General” Maja, Andries “Six Mabone” Maseko, another Zimbabwean import, Ernest Kamba, Edward “Lovemore” Mabaso, and John “Special” Makhubu.
One of his memorable matches, as alluded to in a recent newspaper interview, was when Moroka Swallows played against Kaizer Chiefs who had the Brazilian, Jairzhino in the starting line up.
“I can still remember how Jonas “Para marked him out of the game”, he reminisced, in a match The Birds won 5-3,
Dabbling football with his academic career as a student at the University of the North, now Limpopo, Lentsoane went on to achieve his BA degree as well as a higher education diploma.
In 1981, when he was studying for his degrees problems about how Swallows would pay him surfaced. He used to travel to Swallows matches over weekends and be back on campus by Monday. At the time players shared 50% of the gate takings and the other half went to the club.
“The players told me I was not entitled to my payment because I had not been training. I decided to concentrate on my studies and left the club,’ he said in an interview with Laduma.
He later joined Computer Stars, formed by Vusi “Computer” Lamola. The team later changed to Fairways Stars, after Mike Mokoena bought the club and he played for two years after they signed him for R2000.
Lentsoane has been a teacher at Jabulani Senior Secondary, otherwise known as Letare, in Soweto. And for 22 years, he has coached the school’s senior boys team. One of the school’s products is ex-Swallows midfielder Jokonia “Bull” Cibi, a former SA under-23 international, who never reached his true potential.
For the past few years Lentsoane has been walking with the aid of sticks a result of hard tackles from defenders he used to dribble
Lentsoane will be laid to rest in GaMashashabe in Polokwane on Saturday.
All football legends and masters are requested to assemble at his residence 1226 Mthembu Street at 3pm on Friday for a guard of honour to bid him farewell, said Thapelo Choshi, secretary of the Soweto Master and Legends Football Association.
