Cry for the beloved South Africa

I was worried. As a matter of fact, I was deeply worried as to how was it possible that for the four solid weeks that I had been away in Gabon for the Africa Cup of Nations tournament, there was hardly a negative story coming out of Mzansi football.

I could hardly believe my ears that a full month had gone by without a blot tainting our football. Everything had simply gone quiet on the Western front. There was for a change, no scandal, and no embarrassing or hair raising stories that characterise our football.

There was not even a quotable quote from fiery Minister of Sport Fikile Mbalula. It was then that I got worried. I knew something was terribly wrong. I mean, I have grown up in an environment where our football administrators have made it their favourite pastime to hurl abuse at each other.

It has become customary for our administrators to literally hang each other’s dirty linen in public. I am also used to reading eye-catching headlines about our footballers that have either gone AWOL or have been suspended for failing to report for duty on time or about one that had been completely drunk!

But just as I was wondering what could have happened to change the face of South African football, a fist fight of some sort has erupted and I breathed a sigh of relief as I listened to our administrators running true to form, right on cue and pointing accusing fingers at each other.

You have Tubby Reddy from the SA Sports and Olympic Committee fingering the SA Football Association and accusing them of all sorts of misdemeanors, misappropriation of World Cup 2010 Legacy funds and coming short of lumping them as plain incompetent.

Then a bristling SAFA responds, asking "who the hell Reddy is anyway". There is also one Mohammed Mubarak who was once a staunch supporter of Safa, but he seems to have developed a dislike of the organisation he once served and is reportedly wielding a sjambok, waving it threateningly at Safa.

I relaxed, because that is typical of football in my country. I knew I was now in familiar territory. I lowered my guards and watched with a mixture of amusement, sadness, disapproval and pity as the sickening, if not embarrassing sideshow unfolded.

South Africa was handed the baton to start preparations to host the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations in nine months. You would expect us to arrange meetings, decide on the number of venues we would be using and generally focus on ensuring that Bafana Bafana gets enough preparation so that they should not embarrass us.

But hell no! We would rather channel our energies towards sharpening our machetes and pangas to plunge them into each other’s backs. That is our nature to fight, engaging in disputes and generally waste valuable time quarreling.

The pride of the nation Bafana Bafana has been on a free-fall, sliding dangerously out of the Fifa and CAF radar. Yet rather than spend time trying to find solutions how to help the team to present a formidable front when they host the 29th edition of the Afcon, we are busy kicking at each other’s balls!

Pan-African club competitions got underway last weekend and Orlando Pirates were hammered 3-1 by middle-of-the-road outfit Recreativo de Libolo from Angola at home. And Black Leopards were held by Motor Action from Zimbabwe to a 1-1 draw also at home.

Under normal circumstances, both South African clubs would have sailed through harmlessly without raising a sweat. But the results are symptoms that something has gone pear-shaped as far as the development of South African football is concerned.

We pride ourselves in running the seventh most commercially successful league in the world. But all our marketing and the gimmicks that goes in making our PSL the most glamorous and attractive on the continent is negated by the unending feuds and quarreling by our administrators.

The national U-17, U-20, U-23 have become cannon fodder and we should be concerned. But no one is willing to try and find solutions to our ailing football; we would rather take out our matchetes and plunge them into the backs of our unsuspecting compatriots.

Cry for the Beloved South Africa!