Bafana Bafana head coach Molefi Ntseki has joined the nation in mourning as he paid a touching tribute to the late defender Motjeka Madisha.
News of Madisha's passing in the early hours of Sunday morning rocked both the nation and the football fraternity at large. More especially, with his untimely death coming so shortly after that of his former teammate Anele Ngcongca.
For Ntseki, who coached the 25-year-old both at junior international and senior level, Madisha's death came as a surprise, as the young defender was widely touted as a future Bafana captain.
With a touching message shared via SAFA's official social media channels, Ntseki paid tribute to a man he remembers as highly talented and full of love.
"As the South African football association, the technical team and the national executive committee, led by the President, Dr Danny Jordaan and the players of Bafana Bafana, we ant to pass our deepest condolences to the family of Motjeka Madisha, his friends, his mom in particular and everybody who knew him as a person," Ntseki said.
"We are really saddened by his passing and we are saying to all South Africans, to all football loving people, may his soul rest in peace.
"I have known Motjeka Madisha as a very humble guy. Full of love, full of joy and highly talented. We feel so bad that we have lost somebody as young as he was and with his achievements over a very short period of time, I think he has done very well for himself. That is why it is so sad. That is why it is such a big loss to football as a whole. May his soul rest in peace," an emotional Ntseki concluded.
— Bafana Bafana (@BafanaBafana) December 15, 2020