What next for the Black Prince of SA soccer?

AT 4:58pm on Sunday, May 15, as the setting sun was fast turning the Atteridgeville horizon a beautiful dark orange, Jomo Sono strolled off the pitch at the near-empty Lucas Moripe Stadium sporting a smile that masked the reality of his situation.

For in addition to disappearing into the bowels of the arena, Sono was also making an exit from the local professional football scene – his club, Jomo Cosmos, relegated from the second-tier Gladafrica Championship to the amateur ABC Motsepe League.

It was a dignified exit, if ever there is such. Cosmos recorded an impressive, come-from-behind 2-1 victory over Pretoria Callies, a win that would no doubt have given the club’s El Supremo confidence he can stage a swift comeback.

And his demeanour as his colourful professional coaching career went into the proverbial sunset, told the story of a man not only at peace with his fate, but one who also believes he can turn his fortunes around.

Resplendent in luminous green sneakers, grey tracksuit pants and a black bomber jacket, Bra J walked with a spring in his step and his head – covered, as usual, in a black cap – held high.

That walk was a huge contrast to the one in 2001 at the FNB Stadium during the halftime of the Coca-cola Cup final against Kaizer Chiefs. Back then, with Ezenkosi trailing Amakhosi 1-0, he looked a defeated man as he headed to the dressing room. His back hunched, he had his eyes on the floor and hardly engaged his players as they went for the break. I remember telling some colleagues in the press box that there was no way Cosmos would get back into the game. They didn’t and instead got hammered 5-1 as Jabu Pule (now Mahlangu) delivered a masterclass.

At the Lucas Moripe Stadium on Sunday, however, you got the feeling he was a man with a plan to change things for the better. And that will not be buying someone’s status as he said immediately upon confirmation of Cosmos’ relegation two matches earlier. The team’s performance against Callies suggested they will be too good for the ABC Motsepe League.

No doubt, many will agree that Mjomana belongs in the professional league, his stubborn insistence on remaining coach and club owner notwithstanding.

This, after all, is the Black Prince of South African football – arguably the best player the country has ever produced and a scout supreme, whose eye for talent has seen to the discovery and development of many of Mzansi’s top players over the years.

I saw him play towards the end of his career at a Cosmos side he had formed by buying Dion Highlands Park in 1983, following his summer experiences of the North American League. He named the club after his

A FORMER MAJORITY

There was a simple question put to Minister of Monumental Ignorance, Sports, Arts and Culture, Nathi Mthethwa on e-news this week – why did he and his department decide to “review the process” related to the giant flag that was going to be put on top of a big steel pole?

“The fact still stands that the formally South African majority remain a cultural minority in a public space.” Huh? What? Who the hell is the “formally South African majority?” Do they work in the steel industry?

CANCEL OR REVIEW

Nathi’s department released a statement on Thursday morning after Bonang and thousands of others on social media had bashed his stupid idea to say that the process was being reviewed.

first American side New York Cosmos, at which he had the great Pele for a teammate. Jomo played for Colorado Caribous as well as Toronto Blizzards.

And though he was no longer the lean wizard of dribble who turned out for Orlando Pirates in his younger days, Matsilele Sono still had it alright. Apart from Mlungisi "Professor" Ngubane, I have never seen anyone locally bend the ball from a free kick as brilliantly as Bra J did.

One match I remember him for is the 1986 Mainstay Cup final against Mamelodi Sundowns. Jomo dictating play in rainy conditions and almost scoring, only to see his attempt getting stuck, stopped in the puddle on the goal line with Mark Anderson a beaten man.

I digress though, for it is Jomo the coach we are talking about here.

To say he was a shrewd coach would be putting it mildly; Bra J was a master of gamesmanship. I covered a lot of Cosmos’ matches when they played at the Pam Brink Stadium in the early years of the Premier Soccer League – and visitors to the Springs

Which wasn’t what Nathi’s boss, Cyril Ramaphosa – who still can’t believe the country doesn’t have electricity – was thinking. In fact to the ‘big buffalo’ the whole flag fiasco was one big joke.

He was laughing along with guests at the Black Business Council dinner when he relayed how a panicked Nathi phoned him saying the public – presumably the current majority of South Africans – were in uproar over the fact arena always fell for his gamesmanship. One trick of his was to have milk sprayed in the opposition’s dressing room to leave them thinking there was muti being used against them. A few clubs refused to use the dressing room and kitted up in their bus, making for uncomfortable pre-match and halftime team talks.

If that pre-match intimidation failed, opposition clubs always knew they were in for it on the field of play – Sono having strangely gotten Cosmos to play the kind of football at odds with the player he was.

A mesmerising ball player and lethal attacker in his day, he inexplicably had Cosmos playing defensive football, distinguished by his players being hard tacklers of note. Any team that was to square up to Ezenkosi knew there was to be no mercy from the likes of Andrew "Jaws of Life" Rabutla, Hilton Jordan, Collen "Stone" Tlemo, Thabang Molefe and others.

I was astounded by his conversion of Teboho Jury Mophaleng – an exciting, skilful winger in the Helman Mkhalele mould when we were students

that R22.5 million was being spent on a giant flag and flagpole.

“President, this flag thing, which is such a wonderful initiative, it seems our people are not happy with it,” Ramaphosa told a room full of rich people. You would have sworn Ramaphosa was doing a Trevor Noah special, so hard were those people laughing. Ramaphosa said he told him, “Of course they are not happy with it,” and then when Mthethwa asked him what they needed to do, the president said: “Cancel this thing.” Cancel – it’s a little different to “review”.

CABINET APPROVAL

While there was much laughter, it’s worth noting that Ramaphosa and the Cabinet approved of this buffoonery back in February.

According to the Minister in the Presidency, Mondli Gungubele, Nathi’s at Technikon Northern Transvaal (TNT now TUT) – into a no-nonsense rightback who specialised in hacking opponents.

Mkhalele himself was one of the many exciting stars to come out of the Sono production line before the advent of the Premier League, along with luminaries such as the late Sizwe Motaung, Phil Masinga and Thomas Madigage, as well as the likes of Eugene Zwane, Mark Fish, Innocent Mncwango and Linda Buthelezi.

Year in and year out we saw him introduce a new talent – the likes of Benjamin Mwaruwaru, Nkosinathi Nhleko, Chris Katongo, Macbeth Sibaya – only to sell them to overseas clubs just as we were beginning to think he was building a team capable of challenging for honours. You wonder just what would have happened had he not been as business minded as he was. It should not be forgotten though that he managed to win two trophies – the 2002 Coca-cola Cup as well as the SAA Supa8 in 2003.

He had also coached Cosmos to a fantastic run in the 1993 CAF Cup

colleagues thought it was a good idea because it would “bring South Africans together”. Boy it succeeded.

LISTEN TO BONANG

Oh, and then there’s this. “What has happened is we have listened to the people as they have been talking. Because we are a listening government and we had to listen to their views. So we have to go back to the drawing board and check, where is the disconnect. Is it purely on a financial basis or the costs for the monumental flag? Or it’s an idea that South Africans have not yet embraced?” That’s Nathi again. Ramaphosa said something similar too about listening to the people.

Presumably listening to the people (but mainly Bonang) is something government should do all the time, and not only when they come up with stupid ideas that waste so much

Winners Cup, taking them all the way to the semi-final. That successful’ safari on the continent cost them their elite league status, Cosmos getting relegated and Bra J selling a good number of his stars to Orlando Pirates.

Not surprising then that the Buccaneers were crowned league champions in 1994, before going on to conquer Africa a year later.

Most of those graduates from the "Sono School of Football" were in the Bafana Bafana squad that won the Africa Cup of Nations in 1996. The man sometimes referred to as the Troublemaker was also the squad’s technical director, a fact he loves to point out whenever someone showers all praises for that success on Clive Barker.

Cosmos' demise as a professional club gives credence to the general assertion by many in the game that Sono overstayed as a club coach.

Yet if anyone can rescue Ezenkosi and bring them back up to the professional ranks, it is Bra J. And last Sunday, as he scrolled into the sunset, he had the aura of a man assured he would do exactly that.

money? MONUMENTAL DICTATORS

One more thing; Nathi also said that this not very original or creative idea came from visits people in his department made to Korea, India and Saudi Arabia. We’re not sure if that’s North or South Korea, but we’ll go with the former because that fellow Kim Jong-un, once scored 11 holes in one in a round of golf. North Korea’s a dictatorship, so is Saudi Arabia, while India is currently being run by a megalomaniac who named the country’s biggest cricket stadium after himself. That’s where Nathi borrowed his idea from. All this social cohesion rubbish is copying what totalitarian states do. It makes Fikile trying to get Beyonce to sing at the Sports Awards seem a damn good plan and a far better reason for spending a lot of money.