The Politics of South African Football

By Alpheus Koonyaditse

The Politics of South African Football is the story of people whose vehement resistance and declaration that there could be no normal sport in an abnormal society proved to be a powerful antidote to the apartheid government s assurances that all was well . Oshebeng Alphie Koonyaditse gives an inspiring account of the event-filled journey that led to that memorable Saturday of May 15, 2004. For the first time in World Cup history South Africa, and indeed Africa, won the right to host the nations of the world at the FIFA World Cup in 2010. Yet, South African football history began long before that, and in fact goes back to before the formation of FIFA in 1904.

• Language: English
• Publisher: African Perspectives Publishing
• Release date: Jul 12, 2010
• ISBN: 9781990962509

Book preview

references

about the author

Alphie Koonyaditse: Never abandon your dreams

Coming from a non-descript village called Cokonyane in remote Taung, Oshebeng Alphie Koonyaditse’s future did not seem promising. But his parents and maternal grandmother gave him a solid education in self-belief, and a deeply felt sense of right and wrong.

Alphie absorbed their simple humanity and innate wisdom.

Later, when he became one of South Africa’s leading sports journalists, these values translated into journalistic independence, an aversion to dishonesty and a determination to reflect the truth. The history of this country has not always been accurately reported, he points out. People tend to forget the powerful role which sport, and football in particular, played in getting us where we are today as a nation.

Alphie’s voracious appetite to learn, first led him to the Common-wealth Broadcasting Association, where he obtained a Certificate in Journalism, and then to further studies, culminating in an MBA at North West University. From there he moved to Radio Mmabatho where he became a radio presenter, newsreader, reporter and sports commentator. Awards followed in his wake: Commentator of the Tournament for the 1996 Africa Cup of Nations, ranked third best commentator of the 1998 World Cup, and a PSL Merit Award for the 2003/4 season. The recognition, far from going to his head, simply spurred him on to greater achievements.

Wherever there was access to knowledge he plunged right in, reading, reading, and reading – everything he could lay his hands on. At Radio Mmabatho Alphie first tasted the addiction of football. Fascinated by the intricacies of the game it wasn’t long before he was delving into the history of football in South Africa.

Always an avid reader, Alphie had long dreamt of writing a book, but thought it was an impossible dream. But as with any endeavour that has its roots in sincerity and passion, it soon began to take shape. It started as a series of articles, then it was going to be a documentary film, then gradually it formed itself into this book.

Alphie’s natural charisma and genuine interest gives all those he meets an instinctive trust in him and his goals.

His gaze is fixed on the far horizon. First, more studies – a PhD beckons. And then, who knows? There is still much to expect from this sparkling talent.

Hendrina Westoll

acknowledgements

In researching this book I have had the benefit of assistance, cooperation and goodwill from many people. To all of you I express my profound thanks.

Sincere thanks to Professor Lesole Gadinabokao, Dr Peter Alegi, Mark Gleeson, Peter Raath, Timothy Molobi, S’Busiso Mseleku, Patrick Baloyi, Andrew Jennings, Marks Maponyane, Mathews Mpete, Lester Mpolokeng, Julian Drew, Dr Jacob Manonyane and my mentor, Cebo Manyaapelo – all of whom responded generously to my many questions and helped me put certain facts straight.

To my friend Dr Alejandro Rodón, who never got tired of my questions and queries, I am indebted for World Cup statistics.

Many thanks to Maluti Obuseng and Lesego Seswai who helped transcribe some of the interviews I conducted. I’m also deeply grateful to many other people who willingly gave me indirect assistance.

I’m pleased to express my gratitude to my publisher, Ms Rose Francis, and equally meriting my sincere thanks is my editor, Mindy Stanford, whom I often had to call at inconvenient hours and who never once complained.

A special thanks to my family who sacrificed much, complained little and offered genuine support while I worked late into the night and put them to great inconvenience. Thanks! In my mother tongue Setswana: le ka moso! – even tomorrow continue to offer me help.

Oshebeng Alphie Koonyaditse

foreword

While there are plenty of anecdotes about South African soccer – some hilarious, some sad and others bordering on the absurd – very little of this has been recorded, either in print or motion pictures. The wizardry of Kaizer Chincha Guluva Motaung, Cedric Sugar Ray Xulu, Ernest Pro Ramohai, Sly Mthimunye and others was never captured on film, since television only arrived in South Africa in 1975.

Those soccer followers who are now long in the tooth might want to know why I mention players from the seventies and don’t go even further back to the likes of Difference City Mbanya, Herbert Shordex Zungu and Stephen Kalamazoo Mokone. Kalamazoo went on to dazzle European crowds with his silky ball skills learned in the streets of Selbourne and by bouncing a tennis ball on his bedroom wall. The generation before included Darius Dhlomo, who ended up in Holland, and Albert Hurry Hurry Johansen, whose football prowess attracted the English club Leeds United.

It is with this backdrop that Oshebeng Alpheus Koonyaditse’s book is a more than welcome addition to the small clutch of printed works on South African football, which has such a rich history.

Having carved a niche for himself through his incisive and informative soccer shows on Motsweding FM, Koonyaditse’s passion for research comes out clearly on this book.

He goes deeply into how South African sportspeople were affected by the country’s draconian apartheid laws. Just how the hell he managed to get hold of team lists going back more than a century – including the names of the referee and coaches of a South African side that played against a selection team from Sao Paolo (Combinado Paulista) in 1906 – is a mystery. It shows just how much research he did for this book.

Individuals such as the late Confederation of African Football president, Yidnekatchew Tessema, and long-serving FIFA president Joao Havelange of Brazil are recognised for their roles. Many South African football administration stalwarts are also given much deserved recognition. Personally, I am very touched that Koonyaditse dedicates a whole chapter to Solomon Stix Morewa. Here is one man who did so much for South African football but who towards the end of his career was vilified and became a scapegoat, while others with whom he served on the SAFA executive, got away scot-free. Koonyaditse sets the record straight by pointing out that Morewa was the first to dream about this country hosting the World Cup, a dream that would materialise on June 11, 2010.

Koonyaditse also reminds us of how great a role African countries such as Ghana, Nigeria and others played in getting South Africa expelled from international sports bodies such as the International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) and the International Olympics Committee. It is one of those books that one feels should be declared a set-book for history students. It is certainly a must read, not only for football fundis but even for the man in the street who doesn’t give a hoot about the ‘game of the pig skin’.

S’Busiso Mseleku

S’Busiso Mseleku is City Press Sports Editor and has been covering South African football for more than 25 years.

chapter one

Every South African will no doubt remember the Saturday of May 15, 2004. They should: for it was arguably the most glorious day yet in the history of this country’s football. It followed the national disappointment of four years earlier, when after much anticipation, Germany was voted host for the 2006 FIFA World Cup. This time around it was different. South Africa won the three-way race to host the 2010 tournament. Not only was this momentous for South Africa, it was also a landmark event as it would be the first time in 80 years of World Cup history that the finals would be held on the African continent.

When the result of the vote was announced, Nelson Mandela wept tears of joy and said he felt like a young man of 15. But the roots of South African football went back much further, to before the International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) was formed in 1904.

In 1909 South Africa became the first country outside of Europe to become a FIFA member – before Argentina and Chile in 1912, and the United States in 1913. Prior to that, FIFA had only seven member countries: France, Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland. South Africa was already active on the international football stage, touring Great Britain and other European countries, as well as Australia, New Zealand and South America, although it was not until much later that they played against other African nations. The first recorded football matches in South Africa were in 1862 – seventeen months before the October 1863 foundation of the Football Association in England: an event usually regarded as the birth of modern football.

The first recorded match was played during the last week of May 1862; the Eastern Province Herald (Port Elizabeth) having announced on May 23 that it would be played Saturday next in front of the Grey Institute at 3 o’clock. The second match was between soldiers and employees of the British colonial administration on August 23, 1862.¹ That the old game of football, as the Port Elizabeth newspaper the Eastern Province Herald put it in 1862, was brought to South Africa by the British (as it was everywhere else) is beyond dispute.

Soon enough, football clubs sprang into existence all over the country. The first one was Pietermaritzburg County, reportedly founded in 1879. This was followed by the Natal Football Association in 1882 and Pioneers FC in Cape Town in 1890. Pietermaritzburg County, based in the town of Pietermaritzburg (north of Durban in present-day KwaZulu-Natal), first played against British military selections and drew its players solely from European immigrants. The league was played under the auspices of the Natal Football Association and comprised only four clubs: Pietermaritzburg County, Natal Wasps, Durban Alpha and Umgeni Stars.

Football was also being played elsewhere in South Africa. In Johannesburg, the Transvaal Football Association was formed in 1889, and the main championship was the Transvaal Challenge Cup. The early winners were Wanderers Wasps in 1889 with Rangers prevailing in 1890, 1892 to 1894, and 1896. The likely reason for the formation of a number of football associations was that South Africa was comprised of various colonial and other territories and had not yet been unified into a single political entity. The coastal area was ruled by the British and most of the interior by Dutch settlers – known as Boers.²

While the British ruled Natal and the Western and Eastern Cape provinces, the Boers, following a long history of wars over land ownership, had established their own republics: the Orange Free State and the Transvaal Republic. The British annexed the Transvaal Republic in 1877, but continued Boer resistance led to a British withdrawal in 1881.

The British had seized the Cape of Good Hope more than half a century earlier in 1806, causing many of the Dutch settlers to trek north to establish their two independent republics. The discovery of diamonds in 1867 and of gold in 1886, spurred a new wave of primarily European immigration and intensified subjugation of the native Africans. The Boers resisted British encroachment on the mineral rich republics but were eventually defeated in the Second Anglo-Boer War (1899-1902). A peace of sorts was achieved with the signing of the Treaty of Vereeniging³ on May 31, 1902, whereby the two Boer republics acknowledged British sovereignty while the British committed themselves to reconstructing the areas under their control. The British at that time already had plans to unify the country, and eventually, in 1909, the South Africa Act created a single union from the Boer republics and the British colonial territories. The Union of South Africa, comprised of four provinces – the Cape of Good Hope, Natal, the Transvaal and the Orange Free State – had come into being. Under the provisions of the South Africa Act, the Union remained British territory, but with home rule for Afrikaners within the former Boer republics. In those areas, the deal firmly closed out any political participation by black South Africans, whereas in the Cape there was a qualified franchise which included some people who were not officially considered white. Gaining British Dominion status gave the Union of South Africa international standing and put it on a par with Canada, Australia and New Zealand – three other British dominions and allies.

The Natives’ Land Act of 1913 was the first major piece of segregation legislation passed by the Union Parliament and, especially after 1948, remained a cornerstone of segregation policies (apartheid) until the 1990s, when it was replaced by the policy of land restitution. This was all in the future, however.

Before that, in 1882, the South African Football Association (SAFA) was founded – it was later to change its name to the Football Association of South Africa, and then to revert back to SAFA. Even at that time, when most countries in the world, other than Britain,⁴ were not playing regular international football matches, South Africa was. A national team represented South Africa when the English club, Corinthians, toured the country in 1897, 1903 and 1907. In 1898, the Orange Free State Bantu Soccer team toured Great Britain: the first overseas tour ever made by a South African team. It was significant inasmuch as this was the first documented Football Association by black South Africans.

Other international tours by white football associations followed. Notably, the South African national team – popularly known as the Springboks – visited South America. Crossing the Atlantic by steamboat took a full nine weeks. The first stopover was Brazil, and while it was reported that the match was against an unofficial Brazilian national team, the players were in fact all drawn from clubs in the state of São Paulo, as indicated in the name of the team: Combinado Paulista (São Paulo combined).

Combinado Paulista (São Paulo combined) 6-0 South Africa⁵

July 31, 1906 – São Paulo: Velódromo Paulistano, 4 000 spectators

Referee: R Paterson (England)

COMBINADO PAULISTA

Jorge Tutu de Miranda Júnior, Walter Jeffery, Frank Hodgkiss, Pyles, Argemiro, Stewart, Leo Bellegarde, Charles William Miller, Renato B Cerqueira, Oscar de Andrade, Henrique Ruffin

Coach: Charles William Miller (England)

SOUTH AFRICA

WG Brown, Henry N Heeley, JH Robinson, WF Schmidt, JW Binckles, T Chalmers, Hector J Henman, A McIntyre, Robert Tyler, Gerald Hartingan, WT Mason

Coach: Henry Harry Heeley

GOAL SCORERS

A McIntyre, Robert McIntyre, WF Schmidt, WT Mason (2), G Hartingan

From São Paulo the South Africans went on to Buenos Aires, where they beat Argentina on July 9, 1906. Although the Argentineans give a final score of 1-0, other reports show 4-1.

After the Union of South Africa was established in 1910, there were more international fixtures. Then, in 1924, the Springbok Touring Team travelled to England, Ireland, Northern Ireland and the Netherlands from August 30 to December 3. They played 26 matches, including five against unofficial national teams. Of those five, only the match against the Netherlands was recorded (in this case by the Dutch) as an official international game. The host team won 2-1 in Amsterdam on November 2, 1924. South Africa fielded players from all over the country, thus effectively constituting a genuine national team.

Netherlands 2-1 South Africa

November 2, 1924 – Amsterdam: Nederlandsche Sportpark, 26 000 spectators

Referee: Dr Peter Joseph Peco Bauwens (Germany)

NETHERLANDS

Agaeus Yme Gejus van der Meulen, Henri Léonard Barthélémi Harry Dénis (captain), Henk Vermetten, André Le Fèvre, Bertus Bul, Gerrit Horsten, Albert Snouck Hurgronje, Wim Frederick Volkers, Cornelis Alidanis Kees Pijl, Charles van Baar van Slangenburgh, Johannes Daniël Jan de Natris

Coach: Robert Bob Glendenning (England)

SOUTH AFRICA

Arthur J Riley, Charles R Thompson, George W Burton, George R Parry, Alex Skene, Bob P Tochy, Jim Green, Gordon Hodgson, John Murray, H Charles Williams (captain), Eric SG Stuart

Coach: John Wheeler

GOAL SCORERS

Volkers (9), De Natris (19) – Murray (20)⁶

Six weeks prior to the Dutch tour, on September 24, 1924, the Springboks went to Belfast, where they beat Northern Ireland 2-1 after conceding an early goal by the Irishman Frank Rushe.

Northern Ireland 1-2 South Africa

September 24, 1924 – Belfast: Solitude, 6 000 spectators

Referee: William Cowan (Netherlands)

NORTHERN IRELAND

John Gough – Alfred Bruce, Thomas Frame, James Anderson, William Burns, John Harris (captain), Thomas McKeague, Thomas Croft, Frank Rushe, Ralph Lynas, Harold Wilson

Coach: Joe Devlin

SOUTH AFRICA

Arthur J Riley – Charles R Thompson, George W Burton, George R Parry, H Charles Williams (captain), Robert P Tochy, PD Jacobi, Jim Green, David James Murray, Gordon Hodgson, Eric SG Stuart

Coach: Hugh Sweetlove

GOAL SCORERS

Rushe (10), Murray (44), Green (75)

The table below gives the full results of the 1924 European tour. Note: The first score in all cases is for South Africa.