After last week's instalment, we are now hungry for more stories from your time at Kaizer Chiefs. Welcome back!
Thank you. There was the late Shakes Kungoane… what a character. However, all the food he was eating was causing serious fights between him and our coach, Paul Dolezar. The guy was a fan of burgers. The coach used to put him on a diet and then Shakes would not follow that programme. I remember this one time, Dolezar found him eating a McDonald's burger and then, true to form, he fined him on the spot. He was screaming, "I fine this player! I fine this player! He don't listen this player!" And the thing with Dolezar was that he didn't just fine you a small amount – you would really feel the pinch. The smallest amount he could fine you was R1 500, but otherwise his fines went way above that.
Geez, that was a bit too much!
Ja, he was strict! Too much! I also think it helped in terms of keeping the professionalism at Chiefs at the time. We were really professional. Can you believe that he once fought with Neil Tovey about an ice cream? It was a rule at the club that we were not allowed to eat ice cream before a match. Tovey ate ice cream in camp when we went to play in Bloemfontein one time, and to make matters worse, he was enjoying it in front of Dolezar. It was as if he was rubbing it in. Zakhala (The rest is history)! A fine was unavoidable at that point. I think this was during the time when Tovey was starting to become Dolezar's assistant. Eish, they had a serious fight about that. That guy didn't take nonsense from anyone, he would fine you right there and then.
Crazy guy Dolezar. But how was he as a coach, generally?
Yena he didn't do too many things, the only thing he prepared was the physical conditioning of the player because as a team, we were super fit. The other stuff was easy for him in terms of the structure and how we were going to play, you see. He could prepare all of that haphazardly, but the one thing he believed in was that if the players were fit, they could do anything. We could also see that this thing is working for us in terms of the fitness. From the time you got to training, you wouldn't touch the ball. We used to round up both those fields at Naturena. We would do 45-minute running there, non-stop, and it was hard, tough. If you were new to the team, you would wonder to yourself why this coach is doing all of this instead of letting us play the ball, but you would later see that your fitness levels allowed you to perform to the best of your ability.
Share with us your muti experiences.
Ja, uyabona (you see), muti was used a lot at (Moroka) Swallows. At the time, the team was struggling. That's where I first saw the use of muti in football and I didn't know whether it was working or not, but if you believe in something, then it's going to work for you. We did some things that I never thought we would do where you would get into a room… Okay, this one season our last game was against Free State Stars and we needed a point to survive relegation. They brought in a Zulu man from Natal. You remember I spoke about James Ngidi in Part 1? He's the one who knew all these inyangas. So, they brought this guy from Natal. Before the game, we went into the change room and got kitted out. When we were ready to go out, this guy came and did his thing. He smeared some stuff on the players. As we were heading out to go onto the field, we had to go via him. So, he would stand there by the door, open his legs and then each player had to crawl in-between his legs and then he would hit you with a feather, before telling you, "Ungabheki emuva. Ungawabulisi ama opponent, ungakhulumi nabo (Don't look back. Don't greet the opponents, don't speak to them)." Ha, ha, ha, eish, it was so tough because you would get there onto the field and you knew you were under instruction not to talk to or greet the opponents. That was the strongest muti I've ever seen in my life as we drew 2-2 with Free State Stars. We were so relieved after the game and actually started believing that lo muti walo muntu uyasebenza (this guy's muti was working). It was not easy, but because of the situation we were in, we had to comply. But let me tell you, when all that fear and tension of possible relegation was gone, we had a good laugh about the whole exercise.
Ha, ha, ha, we can imagine.
At Chiefs, those things were not visible so to speak, and I believe if they were doing something, they were doing it on the jersey. You could hear it from the smell on the jersey. We were just doing the normal bath, bathi geza (where you were instructed to bath). That was normal because in every team you go to, you would want to protect yourself. I think, for me, they went about it the right way where they didn't involve us a lot, where you had to be smeared with this and that. But you could see there was something that had been done because the jersey gave off a strange smell at times. Even there in the bathtub, you never really knew what was in there, but you had to go and bath. Everyone in the team had to do it.
You mean everyone?
Ja, nabelungu, nabo (even the white guys, the likes of) Neil, they were bathing.
What about individuals within the team? Did you ever see a teammate using his own stuff in the change room before a match?
Well, you've got different characters and sometimes you could see that some people were using their own thing. Remember we had our own lockers at Chiefs and everyone strictly used his own locker. There was also this thing that no one must use my lotion, no one must use this and that of mine. Everyone used his own thing, and then you could see ukuthi (that) hey, kush' ukuthi lana (that means here) people have got their own beliefs. No one could take another player's boots and wear them, and that's when you could see that people here are sensitive and you just need not to do ama flop (mistakes). That's how I saw it. Even the way people were… Sometimes you would find that a player had not been getting game-time for a long time, and now he's playing and suddenly he's sensitive about certain things. He doesn't want others to touch some of his stuff, and you would realise that maybe he was under strict instructions not to allow others to touch his things.
Did fights between teammates ever take place?
Ja, it happened at the ground. It was not a fight, but it involved (the late Marc) Batchelor. Batchelor was bossy. According to me, he was rude. Uyabona umuntu ozicabangela yena (You see someone who only thinks of himself), he was always thinking of himself. He fought with Dennis Vukubi when we were at training. I don't know what happened, but washaya lo mfana lo (he hit this boy), although I don't remember if he punched him or smacked him. But it was diffused quickly because the coach was there and he took over, but the unfortunate part is that he had already hit him. Batchelor was rude maan. He was using Apartheid, if I look at it. Abo darkie (The darkies), he was not too close with them or even the players in general. He was only close to the coach. That's the only situation that I can remember.
We believe your time at Mother City FC was quite interesting!
Eish, it was like moving from Sandton to… what's this place in Alexandra where there are shacks and dirty water on the street? (Starts thinking)
Hmmm, not Gomora?
Yeah, it was like moving from Sandton to Gomora. Now you find that things are tough and you have to be mentally and psychologically strong because the people only care about the results. When I got there, they told me, "Hey man, we really need you, you must do your job", whereas I was not going to play alone. I was staying in Sea Point. In fact, I had to fight because they wanted me to stay at the clubhouse with the players and I said mina I'm not used to that. We then fought about iindaba zama (issues to do with the) salary, but we eventually reached common ground and I went to stay in Sea Point. They got me a flat there. But eish, it was a big change in environment and I could not settle in quickly based on the situation that I was confronted with there. The quality that was around me… it was there, but it was not enough for me to function and do my things well. We were not consistent and the team was not balanced, according to me. It was my first time moving away from Jo'burg to stay in another place, hence I couldn't settle. The environment also needed me to travel a lot. Let's say you are in Sea Point and you want something, you have to travel to go to the mall. That means you have to have a car. For me, it was not the right place because I was used to amalokishi (townships) and Jozi. Ngadontsa nzima (I struggled)!
STILL IN TOUCH FUN FACTS
First paycheque: R2 500
Biggest bonus: R30 000 for winning the Rothman's Cup
Opponent I respected the most: Roger Feutmba
Team I would have loved to play for: Orlando Pirates
Favourite PSL player right now: Teboho Mokoena
Best coach I played under: Jeff Butler Paul Dolezar
Craziest request from a fan: It was just requests for T-shirts, mostly
