To understand former Bafana Bafana coach Shakes Mashaba’s anger and volatile nature, you have to go back in time. Just over a decade ago - January 2004, on the eve of the Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) in Tunisia - Mashaba was sacked as Bafana coach after he was suspended by the association.
His crime was standing up to the prima donna antics of some of the overseas based players who wanted to come and go as they pleased before the major tournament. Mashaba stood his ground and dropped Benni McCarthy and Quinton Fortune for a friendly against England, a high-profiled encounter that was part of the country’s bid to host the 2006 Fifa World Cup.
Safa caught feelings about that decision and suspended Mashaba before they fired him.
I doubt that Mashaba ever got over that decision. For a long time he felt betrayed and unappreciated. He had qualified Bafana for the showpiece unbeaten, topping a group that had Ivory Coast and Burundi. Mashaba felt disrespected by the association and the players concerned.
He was obsessed about getting that respect in his second stint. It didn’t help that his appointment came as a curve ball with Carlos Queiroz widely tipped to get the nod.
Safa president Danny Jordan is rumoured to have been among those wanting to bring Queiroz. That made it look like Mashaba was an afterthought, something he addressed in his rant about not being a cheap coach.
That rant would be the foundation of his tenure with plenty to follow in his attempt to get the respect he felt he deserved. He certainly deserved plenty of it with the work he did.
He has an impressive record in qualifying for a major tournament. Failing to book a place in Gabon for the Afcon was the first time that the coach couldn’t take a national team to a major tournament. The problem was his mouth, something that didn’t win him many friends.
His obsession to get people to respect him blindsided Mashaba and eventually led to his sacking. This episode should be a lesson to him and the country. The next coach should be fully supported by the association and the public.
I don’t think that was the case with Mashaba because everyone kept second guessing his decisions, even his bosses who went as far as to tell him which players to pick after he fell out with yet another contingent of overseas based players.
That’s probably why Mashaba was this volatile, he didn’t have anyone who stood up for him and decided to do it for himself with disastrous consequences.
The search for the next coach starts in earnest after the finality of the Mashaba saga. There is a big indication on what type of person they are looking for when Safa said they want a coach who is familiar with African football with the 2018 Fifa World Cup qualifiers already in progress.
They’re likely to go with a foreign coach who has done well in the continent and he’ll be assisted by a South African coach who has some continental pedigree, probably Roger de Sa.
It’s imperative that the country qualify for the showpiece to make up for failing to go to Gabon next year. The next coach should be someone who’ll hit the ground running from the onset, a winner who isn’t going to talk about building. We have been building for more than a decade yet we have nothing to show for it.
The national team isn’t a place to build but rather a place to get results. Club coaches are the ones who must do the building. Mashaba didn’t help himself with his old-fashioned methods and the poor planning that led to the shocking loss to Mauritania. That was a dark moment in his tenure.
Safa needs to look beyond 2018 when they bring in the next coach and his technical team. They should bring an assistant who will not only help the coach but also take over from him when he leaves. We suck at contingency plans that go beyond a coach’s time.
Only Pitso Mosimane in recent history was groomed to take over from Carlos Alberto Parreira when he left. After every sacking of a coach we are thrown into chaos because we have to do everything from scratch.
That shouldn’t be the case. It could be avoided with proper planning.
But more importantly we need to learn from the past so that we improve.
We can’t be repeating the same mistakes over and over again expecting different results