WeeklySA_AdminSCRIBE: “Chief”, as the journalism stalwart was known to a few colleagues, contributed immensely to journalism, especially football and boxing…
By Sekola Sello
On August 27, journalism lost one of the most knowledgeable sports writers – in Phil Nyamane. In a career that spanned more than four decades, Nyamane displayed a profound and deep knowledge of sports in general, but boxing and football, in particular.
I regarded him as an encyclopaedia of football in South Africa. When I wrote a book on the history of Kaizer Chiefs in 1990. It was Nyamane – among others – I consulted. I found his help invaluable. Last year, I once more approached him when I contributed a chapter to another book, The Journey of the Soweto Entrepreneur Since 1905.
The book, co- written by nine scribes, deals with several topics about Soweto entrepreneurs – such as retailers, shebeen owners, taxi owners, boxing promoters and football club owners. Nyamane was once more an important contact regarding sporting issues.
I first met Nyamane in 1973 when I joined The World newspaper as a rookie sports writer. He was among the senior sports writers whose speciality was writing about football giants such as Orlando Pirates, Moroka Swallows, Kaizer Chiefs, Pimville United Brothers, Witbank Black Aces, Pretoria Callie’s etc .
Nyamane and other senior writers were the ones who wrote about colourful characters such as Ewert Nene, the lifestyles of famous players such as Kaizer Motaung, Percy Moloi, prominent sports administrators like Mike Tseka, Washington Mposula, Sylvester Masinga, Donald “DD” Dliwayo, Shakes Tshabalala and many more.
I was over-awed to suddenly find myself sharing the same space with the likes of Nyamane, a writer who was a household name in Soweto, and, I dare say, throughout the country. But, in no time I found myself friends with Nyamane. That was the endearing character of the guy – very humble and easy to associate with.
While many colleagues were notorious party men and enjoyed drinking hard, this was not the case with Nyamane. Yes, he could make an occasional trip to a drinking hole, but was never a hard drinker. In all the years I worked with him I don’t recall a moment when I could say he had had one too many.
At the time when I entered journalism, to be a football writer was “the thing” to do. And those like Nyamane and Phil Mtimkulu, who wrote about Pirates, Swallows, Chiefs and Pubs, were the envy of their colleagues who wrote hard news stories , politics, crime or showbiz.
The World sports editor Leslie Sehume was in certain quarters in the Black community considered more powerful than the editor of the newspaper. In 1973, I think Sehume or Skipper, as we called him, was a more popular and influential figure than his boss and editor of the newspaper, the erudite Manasseh Moerane.
Those were the days when football stories were considered more “important” than hard news or political stories. Of course this was to change in 1976 following the June 16 uprisings. Football stories were then relegated to the back pages where they rightly belong even today.
Nyamane later became sports editor of The World, and, when the newspaper was banned by the apartheid government in 1977, he became sports editor of Transvaal Post and later The Sowetan.
I became assistant sports editor at both The World and Post under his leadership. By then, we had become close friends and had discarded the respectful Bra Phil. We simply referred to each other as Chief.
Apart from his humility, one major contribution that Nyamane made was to maintain the integrity of the profession. In the 1980s, many football writers were implicated in taking bribes from football administrators. Many had their names tarnished. There was never a rumour of corruption linked to his name.
Nyamane tried to initiate me into gambling, but failed. He took me to race courses like Turfontein, New Market and the Vaal, but I found the whole thing truly boring.
Up to now I still don’t know how to place racing bets, except a jackpot. A trifecta, dupla or swinger are all Greek to me.
Nyamane was more than an avid gambler. In the days when Sun City was the only gambling place in the Transvaal, Nyamane often drove there twice a week.
Nyamane retired from journalism two decades ago and entered civic politics. He was an active ANC member. “Chief” contributed immensely to South African sports journalism, especially football and boxing.
Nyamane is survived by his wife Pumla, three sons, a daughter and grandchildren. He was buried a fortnight ago.
Morero Nkhomo
