Mzawuthethi Nogwaza is best known for his time at Bush Bucks, playing alongside an equally talented bunch of stars such as Mongezi Malashe, William and Wilfred Mugeyi, Mongi Rula, Brendan Augustine, among others. Yet it was at Liverpool, in the then OK League, where his career started in 1990. From Imbabala, he moved to Mother City FC, only to soon be back at his hometown club. Nogwaza also featured for Bloemfontein Celtic and Dynamos, before retiring at Dangerous Darkies in 2002. “I came back from the December break in January 2003 just to ask for my clearance, then got into my car, and that’s how I stopped playing football. I still had the energy, but I no longer had the spirit to go on because of all the football politics. It’s painful to fight a battle that you aren’t going to win,” he recalls.
Legend, it has been a very long time, we’re glad to see you are alive and kicking! So, what is Mzawuthethi Nogwaza doing these days?
Ey, he is running his own little company for survival. I opened a company and have been running it ever since I stopped playing football, and I’ve been empowering myself and studying so that I can expand in the market. On the other side, I play over-35s football here in Mthatha. I’ve always been based here in Mthatha. Even when I was playing for Mother City, every second week I would be back home. Some of the locals here just couldn’t believe that I was working in Cape Town because of this, and I used to tell them that for me, home comes first. Whenever I felt like it, I would go home, but rest assured, you will find me at the next training session. And when I was not going to come to training, I would tell you as the coach or club owner, and if you had a problem with that, singas’ke sikhululane ukuba kuphelele apho (then I could not rule out a parting of ways).
