Afcon is good but what about Dakar rally?

Bring it back home . . . a competitor speeds past a homestead in the Sahel during the Dakar rally in Africa.

The excitement the ongoing Africa Cup of Nations in Gabon and Equatorial Guinea has generated on the continent and the attention it is receiving overseas have reiterated the importance of Africa to host big sports event.

From the football point of view Africa has really stepped up in recent years, hosting World Cup tournaments in Egypt (under-20), Nigeria (under-17) and South Africa (senior). Morocco has been confirmed to host two world events in football and athletics in the next two years.

Next year Morocco will become the first African country to host the annual Fifa Club World Cup, and also do so in 2014. Japan are the host again this year, after hosting the 2011 edition which was won by Barcelona who beat Brazilian champions Santos in the final match.

Also in 2014 the north African of country will host the World Cup in athletics, a prestigious international event which is now officially known as the IAAF Continental Cup. The track and field competition pits continental athletics teams against each other, hence the new name. Morocco will host the 2014 edition in Marrakech, which will be the second African city to host this event after Johannesburg did so in 1998.

Though the future of Africa as the world host in sport looks good in terms of the events above, it is obviously not enough. More needs to be done, especially in attracting the world events that will not cost countries an arm and a leg. This brings to mind how the continent lost the prestige of being home to the world’s biggest motor rally. The Dakar rally just concluded another successful edition in South America, where Argentina and its neighbours were proud hosts.

Following the events on TV earlier this month brought a constant reminder that all this spectacle and attention should have been in Africa, where the Dakar rally truly belongs. Though the competition has moved across the Atlantic, it was a bit of consolation for me to see that that the trophy still bears the image of a Tuareg headgear.  

The Dakar must return home, and finish in the Senegalese capital after which it is named. Its organizers took the race away after deadly insurgent activity in Mauritania and Mali made it unsafe for everybody involved. Africa must create viable conditions for Dakar and other international events to take place here without any hindrance and fear for safety. International events boost economies, from local level to the top. In the 1970s and 1980s many parts of west Africa received tourists who were lured by the beauty they saw on TV through the Dakar rally.

What could be wrong with tourism numbers being boosted by one event? Imagine if more of the same could happen to larger parts of the continent?  Africa leaders are meeting at AU headquarters in Addis Ababa this week to discuss issues of political stability, safety and development. One big event during the AU jamboree in the Ethiopian capital would be the election of the new President for the organization.

Whoever wins, I have one request for them: Please investigate the factors that chased the Dakar rally away from Africa, and put plans in place to make sure the road is cleared for the speedy return of the most recognized motor rally in the world.

South Africa's Giniel de Villiers leaves dust in his wake as his Volkswagen Race Touareg 2 car leaves behind a desert settlement between Ouarzazate and Tan Tan in Morocco in 2007 Dakar Rally

SA's pain as 2012 Afcon kicks off

Big moment. . . Zebras of Botswana make their Africa Cup of Nations debut. Their captain Dispy Selolwane is first from left in the squatting row.

After Mali confirmed last minute selection of Jomos Cosmos' defender Ousmane Berthe on Wednesday, South Africa's horror for not qualifying for the 2012 Africa Cup of Nation was hugely intensified. Cosmos are a struggling club in SA's premier league, PSL, and has been sitting at the bottom of the table for the entire first half programme of the league.

However, Berthe is good enough for the Afcon, while Cosmos, PSL and the rest of the country are left pondering what had become of South African football. The pain of not being in Equatorial Guinea and Gabon will intensify tomorrow for SA when the Afcon kicks off. It is a great pity that after having his tactics exposed for their ineffectiveness during the qualifying tournament, SA's coach Pitso Mosimane chose the week of the big kickoff to blow his trumpet about his coaching ability.

Now, that should rank as one of the lowest points of Mosimane's tenure as Bafana Bafana coach. Logic dictates that he should have commisserated with the stressed soccer-loving public in SA for his own contribution for us not being where the best of African soccer have gathered.

Anyway, as a great lover of African football, I will be following the tournament closely. My heart and mind will be with the three countries from the southern region - Angola, Botswana and Zambia. The latter are in action on the opening day tomorrow, against Senegal. In my book the Teranga Lions are hot favourites, alongside Ghana, and I rate their squad higher than the No1 ranked Cote d'Ivoire. I hope Angola exploit these weaknesses and score another win against either Sudan or Burkina Faso in group B and advance.

The problem with the Elephants is that their strength is in attack only, and lack someone who would give their team shape and direction in the midfield. Cote d'Ivoire must also deal with their psychological limitation which saw them choking in the last two editions, where they were hot favourites.

Senegal on the other hand boast a massive attack in the shape of Moussa Sow, Demba Ba, Papiss Demba Cisse and the veteran but still deadly Mamadou Niang. Their midfield is rather thin bust boast England based Mouhamed Diamé (Wigan) and Guirane N'Daw (Birmingham City).  Senegal's defence conceded just two goals in the qualifiers, which meant France-based stalwarts - Kader Mangane (Rennes) and Souleymane Diawara (Marseille) - have found a winning formula in a defence which includes dependable veteran Omar Daf, who at 34, the 2012 edition could be his swansong.

As impressed as I am with Senegal, I still hope Zambia will go farther but a lot depends on how they shape up against the resurgent Lions in the opening match. The Copper Bullets contain many familiar faces as a third of their squad is based in South Africa, including my favourite Isaac Chansa of Orlando Pirates. Some squad members are former PSL stars, such as Chris Katongo and his younger brother Felix, and James Chamanga.
With group A including weaker teams such as the co-hosts E Guinea and Libya, I tip Zambia to progress to the next round with Senegal.

Botswana are clearly one of the minnows as they make their Afcon debut, ironically against overwhelming favourites Ghana. This is one match Stan Tshosane and his unsung heroes should prove their time has come to be counted among the big boys. I am saying a little prayer for the Zebra to produce a mighty kick, and an early shock of the tournament when they meet the Black Stars in group D on Tuesday.

Effectively the Group of Death, this pool includes other Afcon powerhouses, Mali and Guinea, who are always lurking as the dark horses. So, coming out of this group alive will be like tournament victory for Botswana. They did good by just qualifying, considering the limited pool of players they had to depend on to sail through the qualifiers.

Let the games begin! 

A marula toast to the pride of Mopani

Brothers in arms. . . Dale Steyn, left, congratulates Limpopo homeboy Marchant de Lange for a job well done in his debut Test match for SA.

Marula, Mopani and cricket. Clearly no link on face value. But a more determined probe points to rising talent from two Limpopo towns from the same district – Dale Steyn and very lately Marchant de Lange, from Phalaborwa and Tzaneen respectively.

The two scenic tows are major centres in a largely rural Mopani District, in north-eastern Limpopo. The fertile region is better known for its rich agricultural yields than cricket prowess. But the two fast bowlers are about to change that, quickly.

First off the mark was Dale Steyn, who ended the year 2011 as the No. Test bowler in the world, the status which was cemented by his top classes performance against the recent series against Australia and Sri Lanka.

This is a great honour by any measure for a regional town, and Phalaborwans should be shouting from the top of all their Mopani and marula trees.

But if Steyn would have it, no outlandish celebrations would be necessary as the Proteas quickie thinks the ranking “means nothing”.

"It does nothing for you when you walk out onto the field," Steyn said.

"You've still got to go out there and bowl the ball because there's no halo over my head that says I'm number one and the batters must respect that," he told the media recently.

He has a point. After Morne Morkel and Lonwabo Tsotsobe blasted the Sri Lanka top order away with the new ball in the first ODI match in Cape Town on January 11, Steyn founds himself unsure for the new ball in the second ODI in East London on January 14. The ferocious form of Morkel in the first match in the limited belied his average showing with the ball in the Test series earlier, and was feeling the pressure.

That fact goes a long way to justify Steyn’s feeling that getting wickets is more important than basking in the glory of being the No.1 bowler, albeit in the Test version.

Now how about 21-year-old De Lange, who set the scene alight in the Durban Test – his debut – with eight wickets only to be dropped in the next match. That shows one has to work harder, even after breaking records, to stay in the team. It was disappointment all round when De Lange was dropped, but the man he had replaced, because of injury, had done nothing wrong. So Vernon Philander returned to help the Proteas beat Sri Lanka, and set SA up for series victory in the third and final match.

At least De Lange knows he is valued, through the chance he was given. And without a doubt another chance, on a more extended term, is beckoning.

All in all Mopani District should be proud for the Phalaborwa Express and the young De Lange, as the region prepares to toast life in the Marula Festival next month. The annual February festival in Phalaborwa celebrates all that’s good about the marula tree, moreover its brew (cheers to that) and other pleasures of the region.

And for that, many cheers to the region’s two finest cricket products, and more that are still to be produced in those clammy sub-tropical conditions.

Safa, PSL deal Bafana another blow

PSL players Reneilwe Letsholonyane (left, Kaizer Chiefs) and Ayanda Gcaba (Free State Stars) put club rivalry aside to do it for new-look Bafana Bafana.  

My last column on Bafana Bafana in December had raised hopes that South African football authorities would treat the start of 2012 as “Year Zero” – a year in which all previous successes and failures are forgotten in favour of approaching the affairs of the national affair with a new, positive attitude.

How mistaken I and other commentators were as the football leaders welcomed the new year with the same destructive spirit that has reduced SA football to a laughing stock. By the end of 2011 plans had been secured to play three international friendlies with countries which would be participating in the 2012 Africa Cup of Nations.

The first game was against Equatorial Guinea on January 6. But even before the national team could fly to the central African country, which will co-host the Afcon, the cancer that has eroded all logic in the thinking of the local soccer bosses shown no signs of recession. The bulk of regular national players were prevented by their clubs from travelling with the national team. The clubs cited fatigue to the players as their reason.

A flimsy excuse if you ask me because the clubs – Mamelodi Sundowns, Golden Arrows and Orlando Pirates  –  knew about the plans for the match, and they never bothered to inform the national federation, Safa, about their intention. If their players needed a rest, how come other players from the same league managed to travel to fight for South Africa’s honour?

Perhaps if these clubs had notified the national team’s management in good time to ignore their players the situation would have saved the embarrassment that ensued when players were withdrawn after they were selected. What did Equatorial Guinea think of us when they heard of commotion in the camp of their guests? I am sure they just sighed and thought this is the reason why we are not a feature in Africa’s showpiece they are about to host.

I am especially disappointed in Pirates because next month they begin their Champions League campaign. Their players needed the Equatorial Guinea excursion for mental fine-tuning. Since winning the 1995 edition of the African club championship, the next generation of Pirates players and those of other PSL teams  have significantly suffered from an acute form of psychological limitation in CAF contests.

We have had clubs as proud as Sundowns coming short in places like Reunion, which is better known as a holiday paradise than a fearsome football outpost. Have Sundowns now abandoned their ambition to conquer Africa, as was famously spelled out by their president Patrice Motsepe six years ago? If their players are tired to fight for their country, how do Motsepe and his technical team expect Sundowns players to raise the flag any higher in African club competition? It’s a shame.

As for Arrows only the soccer gods know what motivated their decision because as a modest team that they are they need opportunities like these ones to advance their agenda. Lack of ambition is clearly the downfall of South African football, and unfortunately players have to suffer for it. Having their players on the international stage would have invoked a new spirit in them, and that would have rubbed off the rest of the players in an average team like Arrows.

Once again, the events of the past week have showed that PSL clubs are not acting alone in restricting the fortunes of Bafana Bafana and other national teams. Safa had to chip in this early in 2012 by diluting the significance of the match-ups against Zambia (January 11, Johannesburg) and Zambia (January 14, Rustenburg).

How do we explain the stabbing of these two brilliant soccer nations in the back by changing the status of the two friendly internationals to practice matches. Is this what our guests asked for? Absolutely not, and there’s nothing they can do this late to change their mind about playing practice matches against another national team.

I hear Safa’s decision was influenced by the absence of certain players from the national team. Now, that’s where Safa falters. The absent players they are talking about have not achieved anything for the national team in the past two years. Their absence is actually a blessing because it presents the national team with a chance to try out new players, as a starting point towards rebuilding the team.

The mustn’t be any job security in the national team, the players who are there must do the job for the country. In fact, it is an insult to all those youngsters who acquitted themselves well in Equatorial Guinea.  The bottom line is that Safa and its professional wing PSL do not want to take responsibility for the welfare of Bafana and the junior national teams.

Safa is now saying it was a blunder that they represented the country in the first place because if the federation was happy with their performance on January 6, how come they now doubt them against Zambia and Ghana? Clearly this is not the way to motivate players on the fringes of the national team, players who mean a lot for the future than the mediocrity we are used to.

All the players who were called deserves a chance on their own accord in the team, not under the guise of a practice match as if they were keeping the place warm for others who could not be part of the squad.

Personally I am looking forward to Bidvest Wits midfield enforcer Sibusiso Vilakazi quickly claiming his place in the Bafana Bafana set-up. No time must be waited to blood and nurture Vilakazi – he already plays the game at the intensity and thrust that is required at international level, not the pedestrian pace we often see with other PSL players.

In my book Vilakazi is one of early candidates for the PSL player of the season. Given his high work rate and consistency in the Bidvest Wits team, Vilakazi is one player his team would have wanted to protect from fatigue. But there he is with the national team, use him Pitso (Mosimane, national coach) and see what he can do for Bafana Bafana.

Rest in peace Zet, thanks for the good times

Legends. . . Zithulele Sinqe runs ahead of another roadrunning super star Willie Mtolo in 1986

Each time when I drive past ERPM in Boksburg, along Rondebult Road, one name springs to mind: Ernest Seleke. The association comes from the memory of Seleke running in a vest with ERPM emblazoned across the chest area.

Back then, in the 1980s, I did not even know that ERPM was an abbreviation for a mine, and that the initials stood for East Rand Propriety Mine. To me ERPM was Seleke, not the gold mine it actually was.

Stock, as the lithe running machine was known, was a marvel to watch on TV during that time of my schooldays. However, he was not alone among the crop of SA runners who were nurtured and sponsored by the mines to excel in their sport – both on track and on the road – at that time. There were many products of the mines and parastatals but I can immediately single out Xolile Yawa, Matthew Temane, Gibeon Moshaba, Matthew Batswadi, Ben Choeu and much later Zithulele Sinqe.

Sinqe was laid to rest on the last day of 2011, at his home village of Maqinebeni in the former Transkei. He died just before Christmas, doing what he loved most – working for athletics. He died in a road accident, while he was driving back from his work with an athletics club in Balfour, a small town in South Africa's Mpumalanga province.

This article is inspired by his dedication to athletics, a sport which opened opportunities for him. Sinqe had his future well-mapped out when he left the Transkei as a 21 year old young man. It was common for men in the Transkei to leave their villages in search of work on the mines in other provinces. Sinqe, whose intelligence belied his limited formal education, also looked to the mines –  not to work underground but to pound the tar for athletics glory.

Unlike the Seleke, Temane and company, Sinqe went to the mines specifically to advance a running career. It did not take long for his ambition to be realised, as he won races immediately on arrival at East Driefontein in Carletonville in 1986, including setting the new SA marathon record of 2hrs 8min 4sec the same year. He did that, aged just 21, by beating favourite Willie Motolo by 11 seconds.

His epic battle with Temane in the 1987 SA half-marathon championship was a stuff of legends, with both men recording a world’s best of 60.11. Temane was declared the winner for crossing the line first, and their time would stand as the world’s best for 10 years!

I had the pleasure of covering his races as a sports journalist later on, and Zet was simply our favourite in the media vehicles. He always had something to say, something hilarious or philosophical – depending on circumstances. It was even great pleasure to mix with him when after  retirement he was a commentator for the SABC.

Zet was humble and thoughthful, mourning the demise of South Africa’s edge in road-running internationally. Even more crucial, he bemoaned the lack of the kind of support the mines and the parastatals such as Eskom, Transnet and Sasol gave his sport in the past. 

Two years ago the town of Balfour burst into flames, which also ate up the local library, as residents protested against poor services in their area. In actual fact, the Balfour people were venting their anger at the lack of opportunities in their area. A lot was promised to change their situation but not much happened, well, according to my experience as I often stop over there on my trips to my parents’ home town of Standerton.

But Sinqe quietly got involved by starting the Dipaleseng Athletic Club in conjuction with a local mine. At least he realised one of his wishes when Burnstone Mine supported his venture in Balfour, a deprived town to which he had moved to change lives there.

It is sad that many of us did not know about this gesture by Zet, until the road accident on December 22 claimed his life.

Rest in peace, Zet – you did good. The challenge now is to find out how the likes of Seleke, Temane and Yawa are doing in their golden years, lest we are remorseful for ignoring them when they pass on.