THREE DOWN, ONE TO GO!

My dearest readers ... Nobody could have put it with such alluring clarity than one of my favourite columnist, South Africa’s Sunday Times Ndumiso Ngcobo, who wrote this week that on October 9, 1827, Shaka kaSenzangakhona, the great Zulu emperor, received bad news that the woman he loved more than any other, to the point of fanatical obsession, his mother, Nandi kaJama, lay critically ill at her royal kraal, Emkhindini.

Shaka had been on a hunting expedition some 96 kilometres away, which is about the length of the famed Comrades Marathon plus 7 kilometres. “With Henry Francis, the English traveller, they reached the Emkhindini Royal Kraal before noon, give or take 12 hours later. His horse all but collapsed in a heap of exhaustion afterwards. Not so much Shaka,” Ngcobo wrote.
The amazing story by Ngcobo depicts Shaka’s strength and dexterity. He could well have been writing about the invincibility of the all-conquering Mbabane Swallows, the new ‘Van Damme’ of Swazi football.

Ironically, is it not King Shaka, apparently lying on his death bed, who pronounced that ‘Seliyobuswa Tinyoni’?
As overjoyed Mbabane Swallows fans danced like nobody was watching on the terraces and players taking turns in lifting the glittering Ingwenyama Cup trophy, one could not help but notice that the ‘Beautiful Birds’  were re-writing history books with every game they play. Winning the richest tournament in the land, the Ingwenyama Cup for the second successive time, even when five of their key players had an off-day, illustrated the winning mentality that is in their DNA and the invincibility that now comes like second nature.
Not since Manzini Sundowns pushed them to the limit in the semi-finals on January 22 (a game they eventually won 2-1) has Swallows been rattled by an opponent as Young Buffaloes did in the second half of the Cup final on Sunday.

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