Sport Matters

The new Premier Soccer League in South Africa is in its third week and already there's trouble at one of the biggest clubs, Kaizer Chiefs. The upheaval stems from within, thanks to the club's restless supporters. Restless is an understatement to describe a largely belligerent horde ready to trash and clobber, as they showed once again at Mbombela on Sunday 20 August after losing to TS Galaxy. Chiefs are not winning matches because they are goal-shy, scoring just 1 goal in their opening three matches of the league. That is not the scoring rate to win football matches. But instead of directing their anger to the team's forwards, and to some extent the rest of the outfield players, the supporters are blaming the coach and the goalkeeper. Chiefs No 1 keeper Brandon Peterson is a having a torrid time from the fans, despite his form saving the team from serious embarassment game after game. Against Galaxy last week a stopped four certain goal attempts, and earlier in the month

It was heartbreak all-round as Sekhukhune United lost in their maiden cup final in their short spell in the South African Premier League on Saturday. Eventual winners of the 2003 Nedbank Cup Orlando Pirates were runaway favourites ahead of the showdown at Loftus Versfeld in Pretoria. Despite that glorified tag, Pirates knew they were not going to have it that easy against the hugely improved Limpopo side, and they did struggle at Loftus before eventually running out 2-1 winners deep in injury time. Pirates also had to force a 1-1 draw at the break, via a late equaliser from the spot by Tapelo Xoki after a bizarre concession of a penalty by Victor Letsoalo. The experienced forward had been lying on the ground in his own penalty box, with Pirates forward Thembinkosi Lorch teasing him with the ball until Letsoalo stretched out his hand to pull back the ball. It was one of those ridiculous moments in football. Anyway, overall Sekhukhune gave it their all, giving Pirates and their majorit

On May 10, South African football was represented in two international fixtures and got a lashing in both. In the first match, South Africa's premier league team Marumo Gallants lost 2-0 to Tanzania's Young Africans FC in the CAF Confederation Cup. The quarterfinal tie was played in a packed Benjamin Mkapa National Stadium in Dar es Salaam. In the other match, South Africa lost 5-0 to Senegal in the quarterfinals of the CAF Under-17 Championship currently on Algeria. While the national's team fate in the tournament is sealed, not only via a heavy defeat but with heavier reality that the country has failed in its quest to qualify for the Fifa U17 World Cup, Marumo still has another day to fight. On May 17, the Limpopo-based side will host Young Africans for the second leg of their semifinal clash at Royal Bafokeng in Rustenburg, North West province. What Marumo need is to win 2-0 on the day to force the fixture to penalties or end 90 minute with a 3-0 score in their favo

Magangeni Primary School in Malamulele, Limpopo, is a rural school with not so much to write about in terms of rescources and facilities. The school is well run and taken care of by its management, a fact which should be the standard for all schools. However, for a rural school in a community where girls come against great odds to get ahead in life, Magangeni has been doing great over the years. In November 2018, then 13-year-old Hlulani Baloyi was in the news for having earnt the right to represent South Africa in the spelling competition in Kenya. The following year a teacher from Magangeni, Florence Bekwa, received an award at the National Teachers’ Awards. In 2020 Bekwa clinched another national gong, with a brand new car as part of her prizes, for winning the excellence in primary school teaching prize award. Other female teachers at Magangeni Primary also excelled in the national teaching awards in 2015 and 2016. In 2021, a former Magangani pupil and agriculture academic, Hl

Earlier today I settled down to a highlights package of major sports events which took place the previous day and I saw an interesting headline at the bottom of the screen: "Higuita claims Stage 5 in the Basque tour." Tour of the Basque Country is a major cycling event taking place right now, in the northern Spain region in the name of the contest. I'm not a cycling enthuiast even though I admire the athleticism of the cyclists making a career out of this sport. So what hooked me about Sergio Higuita, a name previously unknown to me, winning a stage in the Basque tour, is his last name. Before today, the only Higuita I knew about is the former Colombia goalkeeper René Higuita - or José René Higuita Zapata to go the full hog. He was not just a keeper in the conventional sense but a lot more - more on the crazy, hence the nickname El Loco. Higuita was not mad in a true sense of the word but kept the world of football and his Colombian national team on tenterhooks with

On January 2 2023, ahead of the burial of football great Pele, Fifa president Giovanni Infantino, who was in the city of Santos in Brazil to pay his final respects, spoke openly with the told local media about his wish for every Fifa-member country to name a stadium after Pele. True to form, the response by the leader of the South African FA Danny Jordaan was erratic to say the least. Seemingly overwhelmed by what should be a reasonable request especially for the developing world which produced Pele, Jordaan said Infantino's proposal was "a tricky thing for South Africa". “We will have to wait and see what he [Infantino] is proposing because... I mean Pele was very supportive of us as SA. What’s best for now is to wait for Fifa’s full proposal and then we will have to discuss it. The tricky thing in SA is that stadiums are owned by different entities, including local governments, so a lot of people need to be consulted if this is to be a reality in this country.”