Stop the clocks on 90 minutes. End the turgid analysis. There will be no more laughing when a PSL game limps to half-time at 0-0. Shakes Kungwane is gone, at the age of 43.
Two weeks ago, the man I once called Isaac started feeling unwell. We thought it would pass. It didn't. After two days in intensive care, official news of his passing came this afternoon. Anybody who knew him just hoped it was another one of those social network rumours. It wasn't.
We will never see Kaizer Chiefs legend Shakes live in the studio again. The way he lit up those boring goalless clashes, always honest, never glib. The duo with former Mamelodi Sundowns star Zane Moosa was particularly sparky, usually resulting in both men breaking down in huge guffaws.
For me, Shakes was the go-to-guy. When interviewees were disappearing in droves on my Thursday morning show to attend training, I knew I could always rely on Shaaaaakes... not just for a chat but for a laugh, a bit of searing truth amid the guff so many spout about our beloved diski.
He wasn't like the rest. Careful to say the right thing, take the boring inoffensive way out. Shakes was pure kasi, he brought a knowledge, a depth I could never rival. When I addressed him as Isaac, he soon put me right: "Who's Isaac, Nealy?" He was a star who never accepted stardom. He would never leave Alexandra. He was always there for me, even when others turned their back.
On twitter, he never turned a fan away. He'd always respond, he'd always talk. He was superior to nobody while men with half his talent paraded around as unapproachable football and media stars.
I have a couple of interviews I can direct you towards.
Mark Fish and I will spend much of tomorrow morning's Soccerballz on www.ballz.co.za talking about the man, we'll try to get Zane and Kaizer Motaung Junior to join the mourning chorus but the thing is I CAN'T BELIEVE SHAKES IS GONE.
We'll miss you big man. You and your legendary left foot. And that booming laugh. We'll never see your like again.
KAIZER CHIEFS fan Zwee Maphala (www.twitter.com/mazweni7) stirred a hornet's nest on www.ballz.co.za this week when he volunteered to go live on BOLLOCKZ! to present the case that the AmaKhozi are RIGHT to boo players.
Zwee, a lifelong Chiefs fan, admits to crying and "kicking the coffee table" when his side loses, but his argument (concisely put on the video below) is that fans pay for their tickets and have a right to boo Kingston Nkhatha when he is not performing.
With Chiefs double-winning boss Stuart Baxter saying such fans are "childish" as he defended his Zimbabwean striker, Zwee bravely stuck to his guns, insisting: "How do we get the coach to listen to the fans? This is our way of getting his attention."
Former Kaizer Chiefs player and SuperSport football analyst Shakes Kungwane (www.twitter.com/shege10) disputed that, saying: "Under no circumstances should players boo their own players. It ruins the players' confidence. It's not on."
With former Orlando Pirates and SABC analyst Deshi Bhaktawer (www.twitter.com/deshibhaktawer) in the studio nodding in agreement, Shakes also came out in support of the Buccaneers' African Champions League campaign, with the first leg played at a sold-out Orlando Stadium tonight.
The www.dailymail.co.uk Grapevine columnist Rob Shepherd (www.twitter.com/robshepherd5) gave BOLLOCKZ! viewers and listeners the lowdown on the week's European action and interacted brilliantly with Deshi - even promising to give the African Champions League a mention in his column this week!
BOLLOCKZ! my show on www.ballz.co.za, airs every Thursday from 9am. See the Ballz channel on www.YouTube.com for our growing collection of interviews with the big names in South African football.
SHAKES KUNGWANE described South Africa’s abject 2-0 defeat
against Nigeria on Wednesday night as “sad, shocking and embarrassing”.
And the widely-respected Kungwane believes Bafana Bafana
head coach Gordon Igesund is running out of time if he doesn’t make wholesale
changes to his experienced squad - something he will be forced to do at the Nelson Mandela Sports Day on Saturday.
Igesund will take on Burkina Faso without his foreign-based internationals today - Tokelo Rantie and Dean Furman have flown back to Europe to play for their clubs this weekend. But Kungwane remains concerned about Bafana as they prepare for a double-header at Soccer City which also features the nation's rugby Springboks playing Argentina's Pumas.
The former Kaizer Chiefs star with the cultured left foot
carries huge weight as an analyst in South Africa and he too believes it is
time for a fresh start.
Khungwane told me on my football show BOLLOCKZ on Thursday: “It
just sums it up, comparing England with South Africa. England stick with
Lampard, Gerrard, Rooney. We still hang on to Tshabalala, YeYe, Parker.
“Does the coach have a mandate or is he just hanging on for
his CV? We played against the No1 side in Africa and we had withdrawals but in
our last World Cup qualifier against Botswana we have to do something.
“Igesund has failed on his mandate to qualify for Brazil.
What happens when the new SAFA president comes in and says: “What happened to
your mandate to reach the last four when we hosted AFCON earlier this year?”
“We are moving one step forward, ten steps back. When Gordon
took over, we had hope. But now that hope is gone. We need to start afresh.
“Let’s forget about players who have 50 or 60 caps. Look at
the team that went to COSAFA? Only two or three of them were there at the Moses
Mabhida.
“We’re not going to qualify for the World Cup, let’s be
honest. We still hanging on to memories of winning the African Cup of Nations
in 1996 like England hang on to 1966.
“At the moment we’ve got an assistant coach who used to be a
technical director for SAFA for donkey’s years. Now he is Gordon’s No2. Are
there not any better people to go around and look for 19, 20 year olds who can
play for Bafana?
“Instead we have Shabba. Again. Come on guys. Gordon
believes in experienced players unfortunately. But we have players in Holland, Belgium, Sweden and England,
George Maluleka at Chiefs… we must start fresh, everything new. And move on.
“I’ve been coached by Gordon. It’s such a good excuse for
him to have players withdraw. Then he can say he doesn’t have better players.
“You get a player like Nomandela… he touched the ball two or
three times. We’re living on false hopes.
“Come on Nealy, we went to England, Holland, Brazil, we went
all over for help. Why can’t we have our own models, one South Africans love
and want to see.
“There’s a lot of talent in the country, unfortunately it’s
all about winning, about rankings. We need fresh ideas, not people who only
worry about getting their salary every month.
“We couldn’t even score goals. Let’s not beat about the bush and say we’re improving.
Ten out of ten? We’re on about three.
“We’re between a rock and a hard place, but we need the
courage to start afresh. We need to say listen: You did your best guys. We’re
starting again.
“Are we still learning with Shabba, KG, YeYe? Shocking
performance from Dean Furman, I think he’s over-rated too.
“Honestly speaking, the only way to sort this out is to wait
for the new SAFA president to take office. He will want to impress. He must
decide whether to keep Gordon.
“For me, we start afresh, we have nothing to lose. Most
African nations hate us, we have everything going for us. Everybody wants to
beat us. We must have our own model, our own way of doing things.
“We can’t play like the Spanish. We can’t play like the
Germans. We must play OUR way.
“Beat Burkina Faso? Trash Botswana? Come on!”
Trenchant critique from Shakes was followed by equally strong words from Nigeria-based BBC World Service
football correspondent Oluwashina Okeleji, who was equally scathing about
Igesund’s Bafana.
Okeleji questioned whether South Africa’s head coach is
enjoying his job – and also suggested a “clear-out” of established
interationals, saying: “Nigeria’s worst side can beat Bafana’s best, yet you
have the best-run domestic league on the continent.”
You can listen to both interviews on BOLLOCKZ! below…
BOLLOCKZ! my show on www.ballz.co.za, airs every Thursday from 10am-noon. You can also follow me on www.twitter.com/nealcol for all the latest sports news… and read my “Neal & Pray” column every Tuesday inwww.thenewage.co.za. BOLLOCKZ! is backed by www.topodds.com - have a look at their site for my latest sports betting advice!
GORDON IGESUND faces hosts Zambia in the semi-final of the
unloved CONSAFA Cup in Ndola at 8pm tonight (live on DSTV 204) insisting: “We
can only give it our best.”
After fielding a team of little known international faces in
the 2-1 quarter-final win over Namibia on Sunday, Igesund remains upbeat as rival
Chipolopolo boss Herve Renard insists: “This is a game we must win, as hosts we
have to get to the final.”
Igesund, talking from Ndola yesterday, told me: “Remember
these boys have never played together before, we’ve put a team together out of
nothing. We only trained together twice before our first match, it’s not been
ideal.
“And Zambia will have SIX of their World Cup qualifying
squad available. I have one. It’s been an interesting situation but the players
have responded well.”
Igesund was forced to re-select his original squad when
Kaizer Chiefs general manager Bobby Motaung pulled his double-winning players
out of the team. Orlando Pirates also withdrew their stars and SuperSport
United chose to put their friendly against Manchester City ahead of the nation’s
COSAFA crusade.
In a final blow on Monday after SuperSport’s surprise 2-0
win over English Premier League runners-up City on Sunday, Matsatsantsa
centre-back Bevan Fransman, who was supposed to fly to Zambia on Sunday night,
failed to board his flight.
But Igesund remains upbeat despite the turmoil, saying: “I’ve
got no complaints. These young players showed against Namibia we have depth in
South Africa. We’ll give it all we have.”
ISAAC “SHAKES” KUNGWANE is not a bad man to turn to for the
BIG opinions on the beautiful game as it exists in South Africa – especially when
inside Knowledge is the name of the game.
The bubbling former Kaizer Chiefs star, perhaps the most
animated of the PSL analysts on SuperSport (not to mention one of the better
dancers), believes the much-talked about Knowledge Musona will be under huge
pressure as he returns to the AmaKhosi this year.
The Zimbabwean striker, on loan from Bundesliga club
Hoffenheim for a year, must slot in to a double-winning squad and reproduce the
form he produced as a hungry, young goal-getter in Soweto three years ago.
Shakes points out: “Knowledge Musona was a hungry young
player when he first joined Kaizer Chiefs. He worked very hard, every game. He
made his name. Now here’s the Catch 22 situation. All the Euros he got from
Germany, what happened there honestly speaking? He spent two years at
Hoffenheim and Augsburg and didn’t do that well. That’s a fact.
“It’s not going to be easy for him back in South Africa to a
league he was used to . A lot of pressure’s going to be put on him like when
Bernard Parker came back from Holland.
“Hopefully he’ll score goals but the pressure will be on
Knowledge.”
But surely Orlando Pirates’ own striking signing – Lennox
Bacela from Bloemfontein Celtic – will find things tough too?
Shakes laughs: “He doesn’t have the same scoring record as
Knowledge but he will THRIVE on the service he gets from people like Dane
Klaite, Oupa Manyisa and Andile Jali in Orlando.
“Bacela is an out-and-out striker who gets in the box, he
should get goals. But when coaches play away from home, will he get the
chance?”
Pirates fans know Collins Mbesuma has been struggling,
Takesure Chinyama and Benni McCarthy are gone and Shakes says: “I think it
depends on the system Roger de Sa plays. When he plays away, Pirates will
probably only use one striker in the Champions League. But in the PSL, Mbesuma
is a good holder of the ball, I think I will work with Bacela.
“With a lot of planning – and I understand they will sign
some more players soon – I believe Pirates can go all the way in Africa.
They’re looking at the second star!
And our new champions Kaizer Chiefs next year? “I mean with
Stuart Baxter at the helm, with the kind of football they played in the middle
of last season, I have a lot of hope they can do well in the Champions League
too.”
But Shakes also offers a serious critique of South African
football: “We are a confused nation in terms of our style of play. Our physique
doesn’t allow us to play the German style of football. We have to be a bit of
Spanish, a little bit of Brazilian
“But we’ll never have that in South Africa. Coaches don’t
trust eachother. They don’t sit down and discuss Bafana Bafana’s Under 20s with
Gordon Igesund. We shouldn’t be picking the likes of Shabba and YeYe for the
COSAFA Cup. It’s for youngsters.
“To show that there is something wrong with our football,
you cannot go and watch Wits and Platinum Stars… how many players are going to
turn up and watch there? That’s the state of our football. People get bussed in
to watch the PSL!
“We also have to address the problem of age cheating in our
academies. We should have great development in this country – like Ghana, who
reached the Under 20 World Cup semi-finals in Turkey last week.
“The egos of coaches and people in football in this country,
you talk about SAFA and the elections in September – everybody is looking to
get their own feet in an office in SAFA House. Development takes a back seat.”
