On the passing of Siphamandla Mtolo
I knew the late Siphamandla Mtolo very early in his career, but he didn't know me at that time. He was playing for an LFA (Local Football Association) team. I liked him a lot and we 'stole' him from his amateur team and asked him to join us. He joined our amateur team and became the captain and helped us win the league. We left together to join Uthongathi FC while they were still in the SAB League. We helped Uthongathi win promotion to the ABC Motsepe League during the 2014/15 season. During that season, we were unbeaten until the promotional play-offs. We went to the ABC Motsepe League and Siphamandla was still our captain, but we finished in position two behind Real Kings, who won the league and got promoted to the National First Division (now Motsepe Foundation Championship). The following season, we won the league and got promoted to the NFD and that is the season when the ABC Motsepe League promotional play-offs were played in East London. The chairman of Richards Bay FC (Sifiso Biyela) liked him a lot and signed him, but because the club was still unstable at the time, Siphamandla was loaned back to Uthongathi. When he came back from loan, he was made the captain of Richards Bay. I personally joined Richards Bay with coach Ron (Ronnie Gabriel) because we knew each other from Uthongathi. Siphamandla helped us win promotion to the DStv Premiership last season. I have never seen any player that went through all the leagues to the professional ranks by just getting promoted, and also being a captain. Siphamandla is the first person I knew to achieve that. He didn't speak a lot, but his actions did the talking. He led by action and by example and when he spoke, everyone listened. Once he brought that serious face, everyone paid attention and listened. He was a natural-born leader.
On his last day at training
Losing him is still hurting to this day. As our chairman would say, in IsiZulu there is a saying, "Isosha lifela empini (A soldier dies on the battlefield)." I'm sure that if he had to choose where he would have died when he died one day, he would have chosen a field of play. The day he died was a normal day at training, he was doing well and this was one of his best training sessions. He was always serious and he even scored a beautiful goal against Neil Boshoff. He was someone who didn't score a lot of goals, but that day he scored a beautiful goal. We played three-versus-three and went for a water break. When it was 15 minutes to go, we played transition games and his team won the first part and they were so excited that as coaches we didn't change the teams around. So, the groups were coming back for the second part and we were about to explain to them what was going to happen. And he just fell. The players and the medical team's voices are still ringing in my ear to this day. They were screaming "'Spepe! Get up! Get up! Spepe, get up!" Some players were screaming, "Give him space, give him space." And you could see that he was fighting because he was a fighter. He was fighting to come back because he was a fighter. Coach Ron kept screaming: "Fight, Spepe, fight" because we could all see that this was not a normal situation. This is an experience I don't wish on another person, it's really difficult. The chairman and his wife are doing everything to help and organise psychologists to help because this was difficult to deal with.
On the final match he played…
For his last game against Kaizer Chiefs, he was just normal. With Spepe, it was always the same. When we started this season, he was out because of an operation on his knee injury, and the game against Kaizer Chiefs is one game where he was fully fit having fully recovered. When players come back from injury, as coaches we give them 20 minutes, 30 minutes, an hour to play until they are ready to play 90 minutes. That game against Kaizer Chiefs as well as the one against Stellenbosch FC are the games where he had gained his full fitness. He was always buzzing at training and he was ready. We got a red card (Salim Magoola was sent off) and sacrificed Langelihle Mhlongo because we had to put in another goalkeeper, but we did not suffer because Spepe covered a lot of distance. He played very well. I will miss a lot of things about him. His leadership skills, work-rate and discipline. When other boys were down at training, he was the one who would push them. When the boys were tired, he would tell them, "Ja, you chose football and did not want to go to school so that you can work in air-conditioned offices. You chose football, come, let's run." The players would start laughing and then run. He was that kind of a person. He would motivate and encourage them in a fun way and knowing that is what we wanted as the coaching team. When he was on the field, we knew that we also had a coach on the field. Outside football, he was also fun to be with, he would make you laugh and tease other boys, especially (Somila) Ntsundwana most of the time. There are players who are quiet and he would tease them in a way of trying to make them feel at home. We will miss him. When he was there, we felt his presence. When we were quiet sometimes in team hotels, he would stand and say, "Why are you quiet, guys? Come, let's talk, man, don't be quiet." He was a kind person, and I will miss him a lot. He was one person who found it easy to talk to the chairman.
