There are times when I don’t feel like a true Durbanite. For starters, I don’t have a gold tooth. That’s a rare sight in Durban where every second person has one, two or more. Joburg might be the City of Gold but my hometown is the city of gold teeth. I also can’t dance, despite the fact that half the songs South Africans dance to come from eThekwini.
But when they played Babes Wodumo’s Wololo - which is something of a national anthem - in a club in Ndola, Zambia, I couldn’t hold myself. I waddled to the dance floor, drunk on patriotism, forgetting the small matter of the fact that I can’t dance. It didn’t matter then. That song shut the place down because of how huge it is. A part of me was embarrassed because I didn’t know any of the Zambian hits they played before it but when they played ‘our’ song, I found my not-so-good dance moves coming out.
The locals knew our songs like they knew a lot about Mamelodi Sundowns because they watch our league. There are people with three decoders, one to watch North African football, another to watch Southern African football and the other to follow the beautiful game from West Africa.
It’s a dedication you would rarely see in South Africa because of how insular we are as a country, believing that only darkness can be found beyond Limpopo. But we can tell you everything to do with English football because ‘Europe is great’. Our club owners have that mindset that they are willing to pluck a coach from obscurity in Europe without much coaching experience but they wouldn’t consider a Florent Ibenge from the Democratic Republic of Congo with a better CV. Some of those clubs claim they want to compete in the CAF Champions League but don’t look at coaches competing and succeeding in that space.
George Lwandamina is among African coaches doing well on the continent, but it would take some doing for him to be considered for a coaching job here.
Yet a guy who left Sweden as a fitness trainer managed not only to coach here but was even a technical director of one club. So it was refreshing to see an African who has done well on the continent recognised when AmaZulu brought Joey Antipas from Zimbabwe in their bid to gain promotion from the first division.
This looking at ‘life’ beyond Limpopo should go further than hiring coaches from the continent. It should go with a change in mindset as to how we view the continent.
As the media, we also need to do a better job at covering our continent. I was touched last week when someone on Twitter lambasted us on how little analysis had been done on who Zesco United are and what Mamelodi Sundowns can expect when they get to Ndola. It was a genuine concern that we tried to redress this week by looking at the Zambian club that stunned African giants like Al-Ahly and Asec Mimosas to finish second in Group A behind Wydad Casablanca.
They have a good story to tell, as a small club that will not only rub shoulders with the best in the continent but can cause surprises here and there. They and Sundowns have represented southern African football with aplomb. Whoever wins tonight must go out there and do it for the region. But tonight we are backing Sundowns. So, good people of South Africa, do the honourable thing and fill Lucas Moripe Stadium.
This is the most important football match in South Africa this year. A lot has been said, rightly so, about the PSL not supporting Sundowns enough in this sojourn by postponing some of their matches leading up to this semi-final clash. But now it’s the fans who need to show Sundowns love and fill the stadium. The atmosphere at Levy Mwanawasa Stadium was one I won’t forget in a long time. It was electrifying, which is appropriate for a club bankrolled by an electricity company.
I heard people ask, why should they support their rivals in the Champions League? The reason is simple. We aren't at the stage where South African teams take their rivalry to the continent as North Africans do. So before we reach that level, we should support whoever is doing well there because it opens up more spots for us and brings hope that one day we'll have two South African clubs playing in the semi-finals or even the final of the premier club tournament on the continent.
Saturday Star