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MONEY LOVES POWER YET CHARACTER FLOWS WITH RESPECT

27/02/2021 23:56:00 BY SABELO NDZINISA

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Generally speaking, leadership should never be about being in charge but should be about taking care of those in your charge.

These wise words ring true when interrogating the sprinter drama involving the two local soccer heavyweights Mbabane Swallows and Mbabane Highlanders over the past weeks.

The two leaders of these two sides, being Archbishop Bheki Lukhele (Swallows) and Highlanders’ Chief Ally Kgomongwe have been in the forefront of this drama.

It all started when Kgomongwe, the Pretoria based Highlanders’ boss announced that he was going to bid to bid for a former Mercedes sprinter belonging to Swallows in an auction. True to his words, Kgomongwe submitted the bid and was subsequently announced the winner.

That sparked behind-the-scenes unfriendly verbal confrontations between the set of supporters from both sides, with Kgomongwe publicly quoted as cheekily declaring that Swallows should have approached him to help them pay for bank instalments for the sprinter. He was making reference to the fact that the sprinter in question was repossessed by the bank due to payment arrears and put up for auction.

On the other end, it was embarrassment for Lukhele as he claimed on national radio to have submitted a bid for the sprinter, only for the auctioneer (Deputy Sherriff) to refute such assertion in an exclusive interview with this publication.

This turn of events did not go down well with Swallows’ followers and such was evidenced by their negative reactions on social media platforms when the news filtered through that Kgomongwe, the boss of their sworn rivals was now the owner of what used to be Swallows’ transport.

What followed were unpalatable words exchanged and as if to rub salt to their already gashing wound of their bitter rivals, the sprinter was rebranded with Highlanders’ logo, giving it a different look altogether.

sprinter drama

Just when we had thought this sprinter drama was now dead and buried, Bishop Lukhele had other ideas after announcing what turned out to be a well-kept secret of a brand new Mercedes Benz sprinter he had bought for the red and white glamour giants in Johannesburg.

He announced the sprinter on national radio Friday morning and it was duly delivered later in the day where a small ceremony was held for Lukhele to make an official handover of the keys.

What makes this very interesting now is the fact that Bishop Lukhele has bought a brand new sprinter which he has publicly declared that it is the property of Swallows and mind you, this sprinter cost him close to a million emalangeni.

This shifts the scales a bit in terms of who holds the ace between the two leaders with many observers now believing that Lukhele has restored the faith Swallows followers have in him with the latest purchase. My observation from all of this sprinter drama is that if you play with people who are better than you, then you get better. In short, do not force pieces that do not fit.

After the heartbreak of losing out on the sprinter, I am sure Bishop Lukhele learned that sometimes in life, you have to die a little inside in order to be reborn and rise again as a stronger and wiser version of you. One must say that the way he planned the purchase of the sprinter was professionally executed and made him an instant hero among the club’s faithful.

This is what leadership is all about and credit must be given to him for responding in such a positive way. At the end of it all, Swallows’ faithful know deep down their hearts that their new sprinter is all credit to Kgomongwe. We can debate about this all day but the truth is that the new sprinter for Swallows would probably not even be topic of discussion now if it were not for the fact that Kgomongwe bought the one that was formerly used by the red and white giants.

Directly or indirectly, this clearly impacted positively on Swallows because Bishop Lukhele had to react and react he did. After all this latest drama, you cannot bet your money that the off-the-field battle for supremacy between these sides is over because anything can still happen.

In the middle of all this rivalry, which is good for football by the way, it is however important that this is done in the true football spirit. It is a known fact that these two sides are sworn rivals and the capital city bragging rights are always at stake, on-and-off-the-field but the two leaders must be very careful not to get carried away with the temptation to show-off.

It would actually be nice if the two leaders could find time to have tea on the round table and discuss football issues, like we see with the leaders of the two South African soccer giants Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates. These two Soweto giants may be rivals in the field of play but Dr Irvin ‘Iron Duke’ Khoza and Kaizer ‘Chincha Guluva’ Motaung are known close allies off-the-field.

sharing sponsors

That is why you see Chiefs and Pirates sharing sponsors because these two leaders understand that football has become business and they do not need to be enemies. It would be good for the local game for these two to communicate more regularly because it costs nothing except patience, faith, persistence, understanding, and a desire to communicate.

If they are to have tea together, they must come with clear minds that you cannot make someone understand a message they are not ready to receive. They should let the past be their experience, the present their experiment and future their expectation because the idea is to use your experience in your experiments to achieve your expectations. It is always your choice as a person to either worry or work for your goals.

It is an open secret that most of Swallows people do not like Kgomongwe for obvious reasons but the fact that they still watch everything that he does makes them his fans.

My dearest readers, if someone tries to play the role of oxygen in your life, add hydrogen to it so that it becomes water, then wash your feet with it. Everybody wants happiness, nobody wants pain, but you can’t have a rainbow without a little rain.

Life is the most difficult examination and you find a lot of people failing because they try too much to copy others, not realising that everyone has a different question paper. You have to learn to say “NO” without feeling guilty because setting boundaries in life is healthy.

As we look forward to watch the two Mbabane giants in the first derby of this season, the message to not just the two leaders (Lukhele and Kgomongwe) but supporters as well is that forgiveness is the best form of love because it takes a strong person to say sorry and even stronger person to forgive.

Teachers only teach the rules but winners make the rules my good football people. Life is too short to set small goals. You know, sometimes jealousy can have you hating on someone that you should be learning from. The universal law defines clearly that you have to go through failure to catch up with success.

believer in self-love

Kgomongwe is a believer in self-love because he never allows people to change the way he sees himself and this is probably the reason he has earned respect from a lot of people.

He puts his entire mind to what he does, something we are also seeing from Bishop Lukhele from Swallows’ point of view. There are concerns that this sprinter drama could promote physical confrontation between the two but there is no need for that.

The supporters of the two teams should take this sprinter drama in a positive way and not allow emotions to override their level of reasoning going forward. Afterall, football is meant to promote friends, not breed enemies.

I’m sure football followers are looking forward to the first Mbabane derby, with the expectations and stakes now higher than before. Creativity is people who care enough to keep thinking about something until they find the simplest way to do it. My hope is that Mr Lukhele and Mr Kgomongwe will find time in future to meet and discuss football, not to create debate who has more financial power than the other.

As football people, we appreciate that they have chosen football to invest their hard-earned cash without expecting anything in return especially in this COVID-19 era. I sincerely hope they will be loyal to the future of the local game, not the past.