Soweto's season of discontent: Chiefs, Swallows and Cosmos slump while Pirates fly the final flag

BETTER DAYS: me with coach Zeca Marques in 2013
when Moroka Swallows won the MTN8 trophy

SOWETO, the beating heart of South African football, has never had it so bad. Ask Moroka Swallows fans after the once-mighty Dube Birds plunged in to the third division over the weekend.

Right now, South Africa's most famous suburb are pinning their hopes fervently to the coat-tails of Orlando Pirates.

The SOuth WEstern TOwnship, which emerged in 1904 as an evacuation camp at Klipspruit municipal sewage farm, was always going to be the centre of excellence. Teeming with 904,000 potential football fans - the working classes are footballers, the posh tend towards rugby - the modern game has been dominated by Soweto’s finest for decades.

All over the world, from Rio to Manchester, Jozi to Lagos, it’s the lads from the streets who emerge at the top of the beautiful game, shaking the dust from their boots to earn millions with their feet. Soweto was no different. The great players, the great clubs.

But not this season.

Kaizer Chiefs, who won the PSL with a record 69 points last season, could see that mark broken by new champions Mamelodi Sundowns, who would claim 71 points if they win their final game against Platinum Stars on Saturday.

Chiefs on the other hand need a season-closing win over in-form Chippa United to reach third - they could even slip as low as 5th without it. The title was gone weeks ago, with barely a sigh.

Steve Komphela’s side have drawn 11 this season and offer defensive midfielder Willard Katsande as their top scorer with six goals. They have won ONCE since downing SuperSport United on February 20 two months ago, a run of 12 games featuring a sole (fortunate) 2-1 triumph over lowly AmaTuks.

But while #komphelaout has featured prominently on the social networks, so too has #tinklerout as rivals Orlando Pirates have struggled to emerge from the lower reaches of the PSL after their exhausting journey to the CAF Confederations Cup final.

Tinkler enjoyed a brief recovery - eight wins punctuated by one defeat - and he will finish in the Top Eight if the Buccaneers beat SuperSport United in their final clash on Saturday.

But going in to Saturday afternoon’s soggy Nedbank Cup semi-final against Free State Stars on Saturday, Pirates had slumped once more. They needed a fantastic own goal and a late rally to see off Ea Lla Koto 4-2 and surge in to the final at the Peter Mokaba Stadium on May 28.

While Komphela talks about “playing football on Mars”, Tinkler accepts “We have been disappointing”. Together the Soweto Giants could end trophyless and out of the top three for the first time since 2008. Already Pirates are assured of their worst league finish in the PSL era.

And what about the old giants, Moroka Swallows? We all know the story there. Struggling with the R15m debt left by former chairman Leon Prins, a buyer cannot be found. PSL relegation has been followed by a torrid NFD season of non-payment and coaching merry-go-rounds.

Now headed for the ABC Motsepe League after an unprecedented relegation double, the less said about the Dube Birds the better, though I would ask this: how can the PSL executive award themselves R65m in bonuses when a club like Swallows are struggling?

And then we come to Soweto’s fourth club. Coached by Jomo and owned by Mr Sono. They haven’t won anything since the famous ex-footballer decided to take on all available roles at the club.

Never far from relegation, Jomo Cosmos face a possible points deduction over an unregistered player this week and a final battle against Maritzburg United to stay up on Saturday.

A lost title for Chiefs, a worst ever finish for Pirates, bottom of the NFD for Swallows, possible relegation for Cosmos. It’s not been a great year for Soweto on the football field.

Pirates alone are clinging to the hope of silverware. But to do that they’ll have to beat Stuart Baxter, the SuperSport United coach who took Chiefs to their greatest heights in recent years.

His side’s wet, wet, wet 2-0 win over NFD upstarts Baroka on Saturday was pretty emphatic. At least it ended the debate about how the Nedbank Cup final could be played in Baroka’s hometown Polokwane.

But Tinkler won’t worry about any of that. For him, it’s win or bust. It’s Pirates v SuperSport in BOTH the last game of the NFD and the Nedbank Cup final.

No doubting who holds the popular vote. Pirates can save the season for Soweto. But Baxter won’t mind that.

The curious tale of Orlando Pirates: champions of self-destruction and bounce-backability

The happy couple: the awkward meeting of VV and Dr Khoza

In all my travels, all my reading, all my enthusiastic football watching on five continents, I have never come across a club quite like Orlando Pirates FC.

The Buccaneers.  The Sea Robbers. The Happy People. Love and Peace. Once, Always. Before former player Kaizer Motaung came along with his Chiefs, they were the biggest and the best in South Africa. And long after that, in the post-democracy dream year 1995, they became the nation’s once and only winners of the African Champions League, reaching the final again last year.

Ah, the history. Founded in 1937 with the skull and crossbones logo (though, anachronistically, I’m told Orlando Boys Club were styled after the 1940 Errol Flynn film “The Sea Hawk”), run by modern-day Pirate Irvin Khoza, a team of trebles and sinister forces, incredible cup runs and inexplicable exchanges of both players and coaches.


I've been asked to highlight the key problems many times on the social networks. Here it is in a sentence: Dr Khoza only appoints coaches who he can control, men desperate for a another crack at the big time. Amazingly, it's worked quite well at times.

Do that make them rebellious? Reckless? It’s not as if the Soweto suburb of Orlando derived its name from a famous maverick. That particular area of the South Western Townships was named after Edwin Orlando Leake, Mayor of Johannesburg from 1925 to 1926.

I wrote a history of Soweto for my friend Vuyo Dewati a few years ago and had a look at “Mr Orlando” and his past. He wasn’t a bad fellow for a chairman of “Native Affairs”. He built two-bedroomed houses for the working class in 1932 with the intention of creating “a model township”.  Judge the result for yourself: vibrant hub or matchbox houses, you see what you choose to see when you visit their recently refurbished stadium.

There are more glamorous ways of looking at it. In Italian, Orlando means “fair land” (in English, Roland), Shakespeare named one of his “As You Like It” characters the Italian way; the city in Florida also has its buccaneers and by coincidence Hollywood even made Orlando Bloom one of their Pirates of the Caribbean.

But it's not really about the name. It’s the club and those bitter but beautiful Bucca Bucca fans of the modern post-World Cup era which must be addressed here.

Under “Dr” Khoza, the black-and-white half of Soweto is both self-destructive and bounce-backable: when they won their first treble under Dutch legend Ruud Krol in 2011 instead of celebrating a true resurgency they chose to sack the boss and draft in Julio Cesar Leal, because his brother was involved with the Brazilians running  Bafana Bafana at the time.

Incredibly, with Peruvian youth coach Augusto Palacios taking over from Leal in March, 2012, they went on to win a second successive treble the very next season, despite huge upheaval, mainly thanks to the controversial return to South Africa of record-breaking striker Benni McCarthy, who had been thrown out of Premier League club West Ham for being overweight.

Winners of the South African championship NINE times (NPSL 1971, 1973, 1975, 1976, NSL 1994; PSL 2001, 2003, 2011, 2012), Palacios only lasted six months despite his triumphs, with Roger de Sa – thrown out by Wits and in a dreadful state personally – the shock replacement.

But De Sa also defied the odds despite the mysterious departure of McCarthy, who forgot to tell the chairman he was leaving. #rogerthat took the club to the African Champions League final and after leading the initial recovery from relegation he headed south to Ajax Cape Town, where he has achieved minor miracles this season with a bunch of kids.

A picture tells a thousand words: Vermecovic

Incredibly, Dr Khoza ignored all precedent again when he named De Sa’s replacement in February this year: unemployed Serbian Vladimir Vermecovic, sacked by arch-rivals Kaizer Chiefs in 2012, was signed up and we waited for his work permit with some trepidation as caretaker Tinkler kept the ship afloat.

Under VV, a harsh, unforgiving coach, Pirates have continued the incredible cup exploits they began under De Sa. They have reached the final of the last FIVE knock-out competitions entered, winning the Nedbank Cup at the end of last season but losing the MTN8 at the last hurdle this term. Despite my best efforts I have NEVER heard of a club ANYWHERE reaching FIVE successive cup finals.

Despite huge criticism, VV took the side to second in the PSL before last week’s unfortunate defeat against Clive Barker’s Mpumalanga Black Aces. After his hard-fought 2-1 win, the delightful Barker, a sprightly 70, could be heard post-match saying to VV: "You're still a young man. You'll go all the way." Vlad appeared far more concerned about going away altogether.

Anybody would think the Buccaneers were heading for the relegation trap-door the way the fans reacted. #VVout was trending on twitter. His stubborn failure to select Kermit Erasmus and Lehlohonolo Majoro together in his starting line-up has proved hugely unpopular. Even the unbeatable Bafana Bafana captain Senzo Meyiwa in goal took more flak than President Zuma threatening to build a second homestead.

Incredible stuff. Your side are SECOND in the league. They’ve reached FIVE consecutive cup finals. And the entire side were lambasted over a single result. Nobody escape the wave of ire from the Bucca Bucca fans. There were even threats to lynch VV and a constant stream of tweets purporting to herald his return to Belgrade.

But it’s not suprising. A quick review of Dr Khoza’s decisions explain all. Krol, Leal, Palacios, De Sa, caretaker Eric Tinkler and VV were all strange decisions. Huge risks. And we all know about the “sinister” selection process with Floyd Mbele and Screamer Tshabalala pulling the strings behind the scenes while the coach pulls his hair out.

Good youngsters leave, uncontracted veterans stay; Majoro’s arrival, having signed for SuperSport United, went uninvestigated while Tlou Segolela is scoring for the reserves despite a big salary, Lennox Bacela has been forgotten and the back-four failures are now compounded by Rooi Mahamutsa’s apparent fall from grace.

Anybody remember how Andile Jali left for Belgium? When the club put out a message saying he’d gone AWOL? Like I said, I’ve never known a club like Orlando Pirates.

The problem is, Pirates are run by the same man who runs the PSL and – until Danny Jordaan’s election as President – the South African Football Association. There is a perception Pirates can do as they like. Repeated fan problems are brushed under the carpet. Dr Khoza, who apparently now has a blood link to Bobby Motaung at Chiefs (as well as President Zuma), simply keeps the big sponsors backing the Soweto giants.

Khoza knows he can appoint who he wants to run the club, all will be fine. His son Nkosana, destined to take over a club that changed hands under strange circumstances in the early 1990s; is waiting in the wings as his father’s business empire grows in to other sectors and far-flung northern nations.

Let VV do as he wishes. If the noise gets too loud, he’ll find another coach. Dr Khoza is a gambler, a big wheel. Vodacom, Carling and ABSA aren’t really interested in who wins what, only the grand Soweto giants count.

As one of their former coaches (we dare not name him) told me: “Every coach Pirates appoint would resign after a month if it wasn’t for the fact the club is run by Dr Khoza. Orlando Pirates is the hottest hot seat you’ll ever sit in.”

It won’t change. Any critique of Dr Khoza is met with fury and even death threats on the social networks. Pirates might surge to the championship or slip down in to the doldrums under VV. It’s hard to tell given his unforgiving, tactically cautious approach which has seen the excellent Oupa Manyisa reduced to a shadow of his foraging self.

Either way, Orlando Pirates will be fine. The money will come pouring in. Whether the fans like it or not. They haven’t mattered for quite a while. And they haven't turned up in numbers for a some time.

HISTORICAL ANALYSIS: The BBC's take on Dr Irvin Khoza:  http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/africa/4085683.stm and http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/africa/2188671.stm

A shorter version of this story will appear as my Neal and Pray column in www.thenewage.com. 

South Africa's teen terrors insist the World Cup CAN BE DONE: it's a simple route via Soweto, Cairo, Niger. Chile.

World Cup hopefuls: Molefi Ntseki with captain Nelson
Maluleka (right) at Eastgate Garden Court yesterday

THIS isn't a blog. This isn't a story. This isn't a revelation. It's a plea. When South Africa's Under 17 footballers take on Tanzania at Dobsonville on Saturday, they need support.

Coach Molefi Ntseki's AmaJimbos kick-off at the home of Moroka Swallows in Soweto at 3pm, carrying the nation's most realistic hopes of World Cup qualification in years. When they played the first leg at Azam FC a bumpy hour from Dar Es Salaam, over 5000 Tanzanians turned up to watch their Young Serengeti Warriors carve out a lucky 0-0 draw.

On Saturday, entrance is free. OUR BOYS NEED YOU. Yes, YOU.

I was there a fortnight ago. The atmosphere was electric. The locals were lively. The pitch was made of rubber. Our lads - singing and dancing their way through seriously difficult conditions on foreign soil - came away with a vital away draw. Our local television companies show no enthusiasm for showing live coverage of Bafana's youth, but it was some performance. Believe me.

Now they must beat Tanzania for the right to play Congo or Egypt in the final play-off before the African Youth Championship in Niger later this year. If they get to the semi-finals there, the top four African nations will qualify for World Cup in Chile next year.

Now that would be something to shout about for imposing boss Ntseki, his assistant Shawn Bishop, and goalkeeping coach Starvros Tsichlas, the indomitably cheerful trio who have created a unit worthy of the flag.

When I first embarked on the great AmaJimbos experiment, I expected the usual thing. Slightly chaotic selection processes, disorganization and heart-breaking failure. I mean, that's normal. Just look at our most recent senior efforts at AFCON, the World Cup and even lowly CHAN. But this was different. Everything is in place. They lugged their own water and sports drinks halfway up Africa, shrugged off several efforts of minor sabotage from our northern cousins… and never stopped smiling.

These AmaJimbos have convinced me. From the towering goalkeeper Mondli Mpotho to elegantly rugged centre-back Keanu Cupido (great name, great defender) to the nuggety captain Nelson Maluleke, who has a bigger engine than most Maseratis, they have the spine of a side which could carry this nation for years to come.

While SAFA president Danny Jordaan scrabbles for solutions to South Africa's footballing follies at the highest level with Shakes Mashaba off with our Under 20s on a friendly tour of West Africa, Ntseki may just carry the true keys to the calamitous castle in his huge hands. Come 2018 in Russia and/or 2022 in Qatar, the names I'm introducing you to may the ones on EVERY South Africans lips.

This weekend, after that first leg failure to score in Tanzania, coach Ntseki moves Vuyo Mantjie, the Harmony Academy midfielder, up front in an attempt to solve the all-pervading Bafana striking problems.

And Ntseki growls: "We have to find a way to score goals. We create chances, we have the team to go all the way to the World Cup. But you can't get there without somebody who sticks the ball in the goal."

In the build-up, the AmaJimbos played Botswana and Lesotho twice in friendlies. The team spirit built over the past month is tangible. Unlike most prospective professional footballers, these lads are modest, self-effacing… even shy. There is no talk of big cars and lucrative contracts. Just a quiet determination to be the best they can be.

But with Congo or Egypt next up - the young Pharaohs won the opening leg 1-0 at home - "Junior" Mantjie will be taking the second flight of his young life if they succeed on Saturday. Maluleka (see his video below, he's quite a lad) believes the job can be done: "I don't care, neither side can stop us."

You can see both Ntseki and Maluleka explaining their optimism below, in videos I recorded at the team hotel in Eastgate yesterday. Have a good look at young Nelson from Mpumalanga. It's not the last you'll see of that face. He's going all the way. But can the AmaJimbos?

Can it really be done after the grown-up failures the diski nation has suffered over the past four years? Can this bunch of eminently likable and unquestionably talented young lads REALLY get to a World Cup?

The answer is yes, they can. Dobsonville. Cairo. Niger. Chile. It's a long shot. But it would be made all the easier if a couple of thousands Sowetans can get there to support them on Saturday.

SOCCERBALLZ! my innovative football show on www.ballz.co.za with Mark Fish airs every Thursday from 9am-11am. See Ballz' channel for our growing library of fascinating football interviews with the big names. Ballz will also provide daily World Cup updates from next week.

You can also follow me on www.twitter.com/nealcol for all the latest sports news and read my “Neal and Pray” column every Tuesday in www.thenewage.co.za. 

Bafana Bafana hero Siya Sangweni. Nsimbi. Ironman. Has cattle. And a nose for goals.

Seen and herd: Orlando Pirates and Bafana Bafana hero Siya Sangweni

HE’S the rock. The iron man.  They call Siya Sangweni “Nsimbi” in isiZulu. But we hear so little about the Orlando Pirates 31-year-old who covers captain Bongani Khumalo at the back – and has so far popped up to score TWICE to score vital goals in Bafana Bafana’s African Cup of Nations campaign.

This morning The Star’s Bongani Hans finally gets below the surface of Sangweni, the man we can all thank – Siyabonga – for getting Gordon Igesund’s boys to the quarter-final against Mali on Saturday night.

Sangweni, who scored in the 2-0 win over Angola last Tuesday and crucially levelled in the 2-2 draw against Morocco on Sunday, can been seen and erm… herd two hours north of Durban.

He made a 200km trip from the team’s training camp at the Elangeni Hotel on the beachfront to Dondotha Village in Mpangeni when they were given a day off on Monday.

On page three of The Star this morning, he is pictured with his herd - 34 head of cattle and 56 goats. And it could have been more – last year he gave away some of his beasts as lobola – a traditional African marriage payment - to his in-laws in Witbank.

Herdsman Gonondo Gumede looks after the animals when Sangweni – also known as Nsimbi or Ironman - is away playing football in Soweto. Sangweni gives most of his post-match interviews in Zulu and keeps himself to himself. But he’s no mug. He also has retail and transport businesses grown on his considerable football earnings.

Sangweni, 31, says of his goal against Morocco on Sunday which saw South Africa reach the quarter-finals (they play Mali at 8.30pm at the Moses Mabhida on Sunday night): “I decided to take my chance by leaving the backline unattended. And it worked. I thank God for that.

“There were tears of joy.”

Siya’s younger sister Nqobile told the Star: “After my brother scored the goal, many people came to our home. We immediately organised a braai to celebrate.”

This week on SportsTalk on www.702.co.za, Udo Carelse spoke to another goal-scoring centre-back Mark Fish, one of the 1996 African Cup of Nations winners. He said: "Yes, Siya reminds me of me! Not just in this tournament, but when he plays for Orlando Pirates. He gets in the right positions when it matters. That's the vital thing."

Sangweni’s brothers are also making it in football. Mandla, 23, is a goalkeeper for AmaZulu and Thamsanqa, 22, is a midfielder who moved from Golden Arrows to Sundowns last year.

Siya also owns the local football club in Mpangeni – S’yabangena FC.

This blog came from my preparation for Redi Thlabi show on www.702.co.za today!

Matthew Booth: the unexpected face of South Africa 2010

JUST been on 702 radio in South Africa countering the madness of the Daily Star front page on Monday which talked about the 'blood bath' facing England fans at the World Cup.

The British tabloid, which normally leads on celebrity gossip, has stirred things up in South Africa, where a pdf of their coverage is flying around the internet. Hopefully this is a more positive perspective on what awaits...

MATTHEW BOOTH’S story is the perfect pick-me-up in a week when pre-World Cup South Africa is struggling to deal with the murder of Afrikaner extremist Eugene Terreblanche.

Booth is not one of football’s biggest names – yet – but in the Rainbow Nation, the only white man in the squad walks on turbulent water.

At 33, the shaven-headed 6ft 5in defender from Fish Hoek near Cape Town is rapidly becoming the face of Bafana Bafana (that’s Zulu for The Boys, The Boys), a pale face in a game which gave disenfranchised blacks a rare voice until the overnight demolition of Apartheid in 1994.

During the World Cup – with South Africa kicking off against Mexico at Soccer City on June 11 – Booth will be adding to the 24 caps earned since his debut in 1999. Named in coach Carlos Alberto Parreira’s 25-man squad for next week’s preparatory camp in Germany last night, he admits: “This has come a little bit late in my career. But if I can play a part in a World Cup on home soil, I will die happy.”

The struggling hosts have just returned from an encouraging tour of Parreira’s homeland Brazil – without Premier League stars Steve Pienaar and Benni McCarthy – and Booth said: “The lads played very well. We worked on keeping our shape and were dangerous up front. The coaching staff seems to be more than happy with our progress.”

Married to Sonia, a black model from Soweto, Booth has been highlighted by this month’s Sports Illustrated magazine in the US as “The New Face of a Nation”. He was the local player picked to share the stage with Charlize Theron and David Beckham when the World Cup draw glittered on our television screens in early December. He is continually mobbed in the streets of his homeland, adding: “A lot more white guys are coming up and wishing me luck for the World Cup.”

His face – and that of his wife and two children, Noah and Nathan – dominates the pre-tournament advertising campaigns for mobile phones and sports drinks.

Under Apartheid, white players in South Africa struggled to gain the appreciation of the black crowds at a time when football, boxing and jazz were perhaps the only level playing fields for the majority of South Africans.

When he plays, it sounds like the Vuvuzela-blowing South Africans are booing their rugged centre-back. The Spanish papers reported as much when covering the Confederations Cup at Ellis Park last year. They’re not. As wife Sonia Pule, from Pimville in Soweto explains: "They thought it was a racist thing. But they’re just shouting his name.: Booooooth! I just laughed. But part of me wanted to say, 'They're not booing him. He's my husband, trust me, I know!'

Sonia, 31, a former Miss South Africa finalist, dubs herself "a township girl from Soweto” Her father, Themba, died when Sonia was a month old, and she was raised in a two-bedroom house with 16 other family members. She used her obvious assets to improve life for a one-parent family of 16 in one of the toughest neighbourhoods in the world, winning a kettle, a toaster and a TV from beauty pageants. She recalls: "You make it work. That was my life for 18 years."

The contrast couldn’t be more vivid. Booth’s middle-class upbringing in Cape Town started 800 miles south in Fish Hoek, where alcohol is prohibited. He went to an all-white school, as decreed by the government of the day. He grins: “Soccer wasn’t an option, even though it’s always been the most popular sport in the country. I played rugby, cricket, tennis.

“But my dad Paul was involved at Fish Hoek AFC, an amateur soccer club. It was a cultural and racial melting pot. I was part of that from a young age, which I'm very grateful for."

So how did they meet? Booth, who started out playing for local club Cape Town Spurs in 1994, captained the South African Olympic squad at Sydney in 2000, a year after winning his first cap for Bafana Bafana.

By then he had moved to Mamelodi Sundowns, a bigger club near Pretoria. Booth was in the car when one of his team-mates went to pick up his daughter. The babysitter was stunning and just beginning her modelling career. After seeing each other as part of the post-game crowd, he finally plucked up the courage to cross the still-vivid colour line – inter-racial sex was outlawed under Apartheid – and asked Sonia out.

She recalls: "I realized he's not your average pompous soccer player. He's actually quite cool."

Sonia’s career soon took off. She was chosen to be part of the Face of Africa campaign and left for New York City in 2000. Matthew went the other way. After suffering a serious knee injury two weeks before the 2002 World Cup, he moved to Russia, where he spent six years with Rostov and Samara.

Sonia stayed in South Africa to study for a business degree but their long-distance relationship survived the air miles and their first son, Nathan Katlego, was born in 2004. They married two years later and Sonia joined Matthew in Samara in 2007 before the birth of their second son, Noah Neo a year later.

Booth was ignored by South Africa’s various coaches throughout his stay in Russia, but he returned to Sundowns last year to force himself back into international recognition for the side ranked 88th in the FIFA rankings – the lowest of any host nation in World Cup history. They were a lofty 16^th back in 1996 after winning the 1995 African Cup of Nations – also on home soil.

No host nation has ever failed to qualify for the knock-out stages, but Booth admits: "Obviously we're the underdogs. But at last year’s Nations Cup we only lost to Brazil and Spain by one goal. If we can play the way we did then, we stand a chance to get out.

“We didn’t even qualify for the Nations Cup in Angola this year. It’s embarrassing. Countries may go through a weak two or three years, but after that you should regenerate. I think we have to get our fingers out and start putting a plan in place to stop the rot.”