Unbeknown to many, Moira Tlhagale, agent and wife to coach Pitso Mosimane, paved her path to success herself. In her previous life as a young go-getter, she was in the construction field, where she played a crucial role in the 2010 World Cup being hosted in South Africa. Necessity is the mother of invention, as they say, and many years later, she saw a gap and ventured into the cut-throat industry of player representation, where fate saw her snap up the celebrated "Jingles" as TM Sports Marketing and Management's number one client. Soccer Laduma's Delmain Faver enjoyed a sit-down with the fiery Tlhagale at the agency's Parkhurst offices in Johannesburg, where, in this first instalment of a two-part interview, she lets us in on her career's genesis and metamorphosis. Read on!
Delmain Faver: Thank you so much for availing yourself to speak to Soccer Laduma readers. So, who is Moira Tlhagale?
Moira Tlhagale: I was born and bred in the North West, in Mafikeng, in Montshioa Township. My era was still Bantu education during Apartheid. So, we had the homeland (Bophuthatswana), and the President then was President (Lucas) Mangope, who I think had the vision to say, "I am going to allow my people in my country to go and study careers that are, sort of, abnormal." Through the Department of Public Works, I got a bursary to go and study. There were 200 of us that were taken by buses to do technical type of studying – people were doing engineering, architecture, quantity surveying, surveying. I've got a National Diploma in Building Surveying, which is from the Peninsula Technikon (Pentech, which merged with Cape Technikon to form Cape Peninsula University of Technology) in Cape Town, where I graduated. I also have the BSc Honours in Quantity Surveying from UCT and the reason why I continued was that with the diploma at that time, you would always work under somebody from university and I didn't see myself always reporting to somebody. So, I've worked as a quantity surveyor for big QS firms previously. Then I found it is more like an accountant in the building industry, so I found it a bit 'boring', if I can use the word. I then decided to do more Construction Project Management or Development Management, so I looked for work outside pure quantity surveying. I was appointed by Propnet, which used to be a division of Transnet, and I was an assistant development manager there. I was based in Cape Town. There's a development next to the Waterfront and the Convention Centre, it's called the Rockabye Canal. That was my project that started from zero and while I was there, the neighbours – the VA Waterfront – heard about me. They headhunted me and I went to work for the VA Waterfront in the commercial development. So, the VA had two parts, either residential or we did commercial and retail. I was in the commercial and retail, so a lot of projects within the Waterfront were my projects. Then I decided, in 2004, that I needed to skin my own cat to understand, so I left there and opened TMTJ Consulting in 2005. So, we've been going ahead for the past 18 years.
DF: Wow!
MT: Yeah, yeah. And I think with TMTJ, the biggest claim to fame for us that we're so proud of is the 2010 World Cup stadiums, where I was appointed as the leader of the Local Organizing Committee's technical team and our role was to ensure that the stadiums were FIFA-compliant and in terms of design, they were within the budget that was allocated by the South African government and that we met the deadline of kicking the ball on the 11th of June 2010. So, it's such a nice thing that we did it, you know. By that time, they were always saying the World Cup was gonna go to Australia or something, so it was all on my little shoulders, that little 33-year-old lady. But at that time, I thought I knew it all, but today I can tell you I was very naïve and brave, which helped, you know. I think parallel to that, I was just informally helping coach Pitso (Mosimane) with this contract. You know, one of the things that I really wanted was to be a lawyer and obviously, in my quantity surveying, I did do some legal courses at UCT. I think as a QS, you are more also a contractual person because you put together all the contractual requirements for building. So, 2012 I opened MT Sports, but really it was to have a vehicle that is more organised when I do coach Pitso's stuff instead of people talking to Moira the person, because we also had a lot of companies that wanted him. I think, you know, there was also, at some point, that Jungle Oats advertisement and it was actually after that that I thought, "No, let me just formalize myself." That is how MT Sports started. So, I helped him a lot, from Bafana Bafana's contracts to the latest one.
DF: What was the inspiration behind becoming an agent?
MT: I opened this in 2012 and at that time, my thought process was not really that I was becoming an agent because I was not an agent of anybody until now. I was managing coach Pitso and I think the way things happen in South Africa, in particular, more teams look only at the coach, not including his support team, right? So, it's not that I took a decision. I think in 2018, the build environment, my space, became very tough because it was just not enough infrastructure projects being done and so it became really, really tough for us and I thought to myself… You know, one of the key things, I think, of people like us who are entrepreneurs is what is another opportunity that one can do? And I thought being a project manager and having done it for so many years, one can definitely project-manage anything beyond being an agent and so MT Sports is called MT Sports Marketing and Management. So, the management part of it, you can look at it as being an agent, plus its project managing programmes like Pitso Mosimane Soccer Schools. From the marketing point of view, we help with brand positioning. We can help entities, we can help individuals, sponsorship or even negotiating sponsorship for our clients. So, my role is not being Moira the agent of players and coaches, no. I am doing the whole marketing and management in the sports space. So, I did not sit and say I am going to be an agent in the cut-throat environment.
DF: We get your point.
MT: I'm hoping that the market somehow would be also managed correctly because some of the players or even coaches that come to me… Before I take somebody on, I want to understand what they've signed, you know. Some of the contracts are quite shocking that we have agreed to sign and it locks them for the longest of time. I found the space to be quite draining if you ask me, because as an agent, you are not really more about negotiating for clients, but you are also more like a psychologist, to be honest. You are that person that when they are up or down, they call on you or when they have got challenges, you are more also like an adviser. This is what I think you must do, this is what I think you must not do. I am still looking for a way of ensuring that we maximise our client experience because I think one of the things that our clients, players and coaches don't understand and that I keep on saying to them is that my role is not necessarily to find them a job. Their performance must find them a job, and my role is to ensure that whatever that they sign is fair and proper and protected. I think this is just one thing that one needs to understand. I don't go out looking for players or coaches, people come to us.
DF: You kept your own surname rather than taking on the Mosimane name. Why?
MT: So, Pitso and I met when we were much older. We didn't meet young, and by the time we met, I had already established my own profile in business – one. And two, I did not want to be called Pitso Mosimane's wife. I don't think people knew about me for almost 5 or 10 years of us. I think people only became aware of me with Al Ahly because I just did not want to lose the Moira Tlhagale person to be categorized as Pitso Mosimane's wife because I think I've given a lot and I can give a lot being judged as myself. I think it is unfortunate for me that people now know, but it was good when people didn't know when I did the World Cup, people didn't know until, I think, in 2010. I think at some point people saw us together, but people didn't know that I'm associated with him. Can you imagine now I'm looking for a job from a Kaizer Chiefs, a client, or somebody who loves Kaizer Chiefs and is angry at coach Pitso for whatever reason, and then I don't get an opportunity because soccer is so emotional? We agreed on it. What's in a name? I guess keep yours, I keep mine.
DF: Coach Pitso has been hoisting the South African flag so high with his achievements. When did the idea to amplify 'brand Pitso Mosimane' come to the fore?
MT: I think for coach Pitso, to be honest, as far back as 2006, he kept on saying he does not want to be known as a coach of soccer, he wants his legacy to be much bigger than that. Unfortunately for me at the time, let's say 2005 to 2010, that's when I was doing the World Cup, so my focus really was on this big project, right? Then that passed and he kept on… I mean, the whole issue about the Pitso Mosimane Soccer Schools is something that I can tell you, for the past 18 years he has been talking about. So, with that, I couldn't do much about it and the reality of the matter is you are also restricted financially to go look for a company to come and do that, and I think it became quite an opportune time for me in 2018 when our industry went down that we decided, "Ok, let's work with you, with your brand and reposition." I mean, we started, in fact, just even about brand positioning and the language and the logo and just coming up with a bigger strategy of really what does coach Pitso want to achieve ultimately? Yes, people might say, "Why are you not doing that for all the coaches?" Unfortunately, it is not possible. One, coach Pitso pays for the service because he said for you to invest in your brand, you've got to pay because until you get sponsors or other brands that want to associate with you, you need to show why they should want to associate with you. That could be the way you carry yourself or the way you perform in that space that you're an expert in that people say yes, we do want that.
DF: True.
MT: So, we started, sort of, in 2018 with this bigger strategy that he's wanted since 18 or 20 years ago, to say this is where coach Pitso keeps on saying ultimately he wants to own his own school that produces soccer players, similar to what you have in the US where the Williams sisters were. Something similar to that. For the longest of time, I couldn't understand it because all that obviously needs a lot of income, but I mean, it's just how you build with the right partners. And in positioning him, really, for us it was not about creating. I mean, I think he was already created. So, for us, it was just to say what else can happen to branch out of that? For example, we start with Pitso Mosimane Soccer Schools where his thing is. We are all laughing at what's happening in our country, but who is doing what? I don't want to be one of those people who's just criticising our national teams but is not adding a little bit to bettering it. And our schools won't solve the problem, but imagine if all the soccer players had a similar thing, definitely we'll be able to, at some point in the next 10 years, come up with a product that can represent us internationally. So, that, in itself, gives you opportunities of even to apparel, right? You are already now opening another avenue in sports apparel based on that. We've now created PM Active as a sports apparel that, for starters, will be worn by the children that are at the schools, and then as we move along, it can be another big thing. One of the other things that we are working on is coach education, where he is writing a book on education of age-appropriate training of children. We don't have a book written by a South African, right? So, we are working on that, and it takes a lot of time and effort and funding, but long-term we believe that he will be able to recoup his finances.
