‘I will recover’
Bernard Lushozi was always destined to play football. Born 57 years ago in Orlando, Soweto as the second last born of nine kids from his mother, who was the younger of two wives to his father, Lushozi was raised in Zola, which is where he attended school.
His brother Richard kept goals at Orlando Highlanders and was succeeded by Patson ‘Kamuzu’ Banda.
Late into his teens, Lushozi was recruited from amateur football club Jabulani Black Dragons to Moroka Swallows by the late David ‘Pine’ Chabeli.
“Within two weeks, I went from playing on the dusty hard ground to the grass. Plus, I wasn’t coming from a development structure. We were quickly thrown into the lion’s den, and it got even worse the following year after the split [between National Soccer League and National Professional Soccer League in 1985] which demanded us to play more as some players left Swallows to form the rival Birds.
“Imagine filling in for giants like Joel ‘Ace’ Mnini, Aubrey ‘The Great’ Makgopela, Frederick ‘Congo’ Malebane, Aaron ‘Roadblock’ Makhathini, but we had to adjust as soon as possible.
“I realised that we are now in a professional set-up, and you are paid even though it was R50 for a win with a salary of R600, which ultimately went up to R6,000 when I
