Part 4 begins in earnest! There must have been a lot of fun and games during your time at Orlando Pirates, whom you've told us you enjoyed playing for. Share the memories…
You know, the way Lelo Mbele acted… he always knew that Lucky Lekgwathi used to get angry with him, so he always used to tease the guy. And you know when Lucky got angry, he would chase you – he would make sure to chase you and get you, ha, ha, ha. So, Lelo would run away to make sure that Lucky didn't catch him. But he was always like that… he would come to this one and do something, he would hit a player and then he would run away. He used to be like a small child, always looking for trouble. But "Cheeseboy" (Lebohang Mokoena) and the late Gift (Leremi), those two used to be naughty. When I got to Pirates, what they used to do was that at camp, before we went to sleep the night before the game, they would take our phones. The guys used to complain about that, asking, "Ah, why are you taking our phones? What if I want to phone my mother or I want to phone my girlfriend?" The club officials would say, "No, you guys need to concentrate." Tebogo Moloi was still the assistant coach, so we used to give our phones to him and then he would put them in a bag and then put the bag in a safe in his room. The guys got angry, but obviously it was part of the club's policy. So, we said, "No, no, man, we need to do something here."
Hmmm.
One day, each player set his alarm for the early-morning hours. So, one player would set his alarm for a certain time, and then the other for 10 minutes later, and so on. All this from 01h00! All of us put our alarms on so that when Tebza had the phones, all the alarms would go off and it would disturb his sleep. Every 10 minutes, an alarm would go off, ha, ha, ha. So, the next morning, all of us were early at breakfast and now we were sitting and we could see he was not there yet. The moment he walked in, you could see that this man had not slept a wink, as his eyes were bloodshot. You could see he was angry! As he was walking in, we just started laughing. He then pointed a finger towards the players and said, "You guys, I'm gonna get you." Afterwards, he also started laughing along, and we told him, "You must stop taking our phones." But you know, after that, the guys got so clever because all they did was to get an extra phone, so even if they gave the one phone, they still had another phone they brought with.
Soccer players for you.
Ah, you know they will always find a way, find a way to do something.
Tyren, were you there when the stabbing incident between Lelo Mbele and Lucky Lekgwathi, which was a Siya crew exclusive at the time, much to the shock of the football industry, happened?
(Pauses) I'm thinking now… I wonder if it was that year… could have been the time when I was there, but there was a time when I was involved in a car accident, so I was away from training for a while. But I remember the time when that happened, but I wasn't physically at training on that particular day.
Okay. We remember the terrible accident you were involved in and were all glad you came out alive. Now, tell us about the terrible twins, Cheeseboy and Gift.
Oh, no! They would always be together. I don't know… they also used to pick on Lucky because they knew Lucky would get angry quickly. There was always something with them and Lucky, or with whoever. But the two of them, you would always find them thinking, "What can we do? What can we do? Who can we make fun of?" But they were nice boys. I think when I got there, they just got promoted to the first team. They were naughty, but they were nice boys.
And Onyekachi Okonkwo?
Ah, that one is crazy. There was a time when I used to share a room with him, and he wouldn't take any nonsense from any player. He and Lelo always wanted to fight, but in a playful way. Why, I don't know. I don't know if it was because the one was from Nigeria and the other one was from Congo, but they always wanted to fight with one another. I remember the one day they were fighting and I asked, "Guys, why are you fighting?" One said, "No, man, this one is talking too much." So, it was almost like when one felt the other was talking a lot, he would tell him, "Hey, stop talking. You are talking too much!" Ha, ha, ha. I remember one time, Okonkwo was telling Lelo, "One day I'm going to fight you." Lelo said, "Me, I'm ready anytime." So, Okonkwo said, "Ja, one day I'm going to fight you. One day I'm going to come to your room at 03h00 and start beating you because I know that time you are fast asleep and you won't be able to survive. So, I will beat you, my man." But you know it was only jokes. They were forever… when you didn't know them, you would think these guys were angry and they didn't like each other, but it was not like that. It's just that that's the way they were.
Let's move on to Mamelodi Sundowns. We understand there were a number of characters there.
At Sundowns, there were also a few. Vuyo Mere. Who else? (Starts thinking) The late Oscar Ntwagae. Even Surprise Moriri, he always used to make fun of the other players. Whenever something happened, Surprise would always be the one that would pick it up and he would go at it and just make fun of whoever, you know. And these guys were sharp hey. Wherever we were, we would sit and if something happened, someone would see it. Sometimes you would think, "No, I don't think anybody saw that." No, someone would see what happens to you and then they would just make fun of you. So, you couldn't do anything. Sometimes you had to just make sure that you stayed on your lane and didn't do anything wrong for someone to notice and then you end up being the guy that they made fun of.
Then there's the issue of muti. Must have been an eye-opener for you, coming from the Mother City.
Ha, ha, ha, ja, it's actually funny because… okay, guys used to tell me about these things, but for me… you know, I grew up as a Christian and that was my belief.
By the way, before we go any further on this topic, we gotta ask you about this. We did a Still In Touch with "Biza Matamati", real name Tebogo Mathebula, a while back. Do you still remember him?
Yes, I know Biza. I think he came (to Sundowns) in my last year. I remember him, he spent some time with us.
He shared a story about how Fanyana Dhladhla openly admitted to using muti in a dressing room discussion with you at Downs, even saying the muti men would up the price once they knew you were playing for the Brazilians. Can you recall that exchange?
Fanyana… Isn't that the one who changed his surname? He came after I left. I think he also played right side of midfield. No, maybe Biza is mistaking me for someone else. What I must say, the time when I was at Sundowns, there was nothing about muti. We didn't use muti. I don't know about afterwards, but when I was there, I never experienced anything about having to use muti, you have to do this, you have to eat this. Nothing about that. Like I'm saying, maybe he's confusing me with David Kannemeyer or Brent Carelse.
Ok. Could be Carelse.
I remember my first game for Pirates, we played away in Durban against Manning Rangers. I was in the room with Jimmy Tau. It was a night game.
Hold it right there. We'll get to that story, and more, next week.
No problem.
STILL IN TOUCH FUN FACTS
First paycheque: R750
Biggest bonus: R25 000
Opponent you respected the most: Brett Evans
Team you would have loved to play for: Kaizer Chiefs
Favourite PSL player right now: Themba Zwane
Best coach played under: Clive Barker
Craziest request from a fan: None, only jersey requests really.
