Mzansi Leg.....ends???? : Part 1

Last year sometime I was watching the show hosted by Phumlani Msibi called "Mzansi Legends" and I really enjoyed how it took me back into memory lane when I played one pal (street soccer) and we would actually pretended we were Dr 16V Khumalo, Ace Khuse, Madida, or even some of the older legends like Jomo, Dladla, Chippa or Ace Ntsoelengoe who were the generation before that. 

Remember that Sasol ad?

http://www.tvspots.tv/video/48093/SASOL--SOWETO-ALL-STARS 

I will never forget some of the football I used to watch as a laaitjie, piano shoe shine is what I remembered as we watched seriously entertaining football. Tjovitjo as we whistled while Dr would stand on top of the ball to entertain the fans because Chiefs was 2 nil up. They didn't always go forward or shoot from outside the box, but we were entertained as they played our football and believe it or not they got results. Back then they wanted to dribble the ball into the box like Barca does now and it worked for us.

I loved the concept of the show, Mzansi Legends, and I thought it was a brilliant way to commemorate and appreciate our legends that didn’t necessarily get the lime light and recognition like your Maradona or Pele, yet could be argued to be on the same standard of skill if not better by certain people who actually saw them play. Much as I liked the concept, the first thought that ran through my mind was "How sustainable is this show?"

Fact is for a show you need interested viewers, to get interested viewers you need material, to keep viewers interested, the material has to be great. Now let’s look at that. They had material, but what happens post 1996 in terms of SA football players? What drove me to write this blog is because of the consistent recent poor form of our national squad Bafana Bafana...

If you google the word legend, you will read descriptions like “story of.., history, supernatural being" and we associate it with some great person from the past. That being said I started asking myself a question, between 1996 and now, did any of our talent play and work hard enough on their career to come close to being called a legend? Will this show have material when they are done with Dr and Co.’s era? But seriously do we have anyone to keep this show going after the legends of 1996?

Jabu Pule was such a talent, but clearly so was Mr Jack Daniels. The man went as far as changing his name to Jabu Mahlangu (surname of late father) to perhaps get rid of the bad luck amongst other things which I won’t get into, not realizing that dropping the bottle and picking up the discipline is also a requirement to maintain and improve talent. “Talent alone won't make you successful.” And that is clearly demonstrated by current form of Bafana Bafana, which has not been up to standard since 1996 and has been getting worse. What picture does it paint for SA football? So I personally feel the greats are gone, we have lost over 15 years where we could have been building. Or were we finding our feet post democracy?

All we need is proper leadership and organizations. How can we build something solid without a good foundation and a vision driven by disciplined leadership? Reuel Khoza the Chairman of Nedbank was criticized a couple of months ago for the manner in which he communicated his opinion to government. It was a valid observation, we need visionary leadership. In his words “Leadership at all levels should demonstrate a commitment to creative freedom"