Phumlani, we haven't had a chat with you in a while. You've been around for quite some time so will obviously have a lot to share, but maybe we should start with your time at Bidvest Wits.
We had some crazy times when we were at Wits. While I was there, the main character in the team was Jabulani Shongwe. He always kept the mood high in the team and it was good because we enjoyed laughing and being around him. There is one moment I will never forget from Jabu. If you remember, we had our big striker in the team, Henrico Botes. Everyone was a bit scared of him because he was a rough kind of person, but Jabu used to tease him all the time and they would have those little fights and we would laugh about that. But the most outstanding moment was when Jabu took Henrico's soccer boots and he wore them.
Geez! How big were those boots?
Henrico is a big guy, so I think he wore size 11 or something like that and Jabu was a size 7, ha, ha, ha. So, you can imagine how big those boots looked on him and he was jogging around and kicking the ball with them, ha, ha, ha. For me, that was a killer moment from Jabu. Eish, bro, Jabu was so funny.
We can imagine. So, what was Jabu's relationship like with coach Gavin Hunt at the time?
Interestingly, a lot of the funny moments from the coach involved Jabu. They had such an interesting relationship and it made us laugh as a team. Whenever Jabu was a bit late for training or we had a weekend off, coach Gavin would see that Jabu had been having some fun, which meant that he didn't sleep much. So, the coach would look for him and start picking on him, ha, ha, ha. He would say, "Where is Jabu?" because the coach also knew that Jabu was the funny one in the team. The coach would speak c**p, if you know what I mean, ha, ha, ha.
Sure. We all know how much of a character coach Gavin can be…
He would swear and all that, but he would do it jokingly and just play around. The funny thing is that Jabu also used to tease the coach and Gavin would just say, "F**k off, Jabu", ha, ha, ha. Everything was just revolving around Jabu because whenever you did something wrong or you made a mistake, he would be on your case for the whole week, ha, ha, ha.
It really seems like Jabu was the go-to guy for entertainment in the team, but what about when Gavin had those moments when he was dancing in the dressing room? When Wits won the league, there was a video that went viral on social media of the coach showing off some of his dance moves, ha, ha, ha.
Ha, ha, ha, oh yeah, I remember that. I had actually forgotten! The coach really liked to dance and that was the day we were confirmed champions of the league. I think it was two games before the end of the season and we beat Maritzburg (United) and I was the one who scored the goal, which is why it's easy for me to remember, ha, ha, ha. But yeah, he danced, and I remember it was the video that was trending. He enjoys having a drink or two and he also loves dancing. He showed us his dancing skills and we saw things that we had never seen before, ha, ha, ha. That's another funny part of him. He likes having fun a lot.
Did you guys rate his dancing skills that day?
Yeah, we did rate his dancing skills, ha, ha, ha. For someone who is that old, being flexible and making moves like that, it surprised most of us. We didn't know that he could dance like that, and it made us laugh so much and we just fell in love with it. We always wanted to see him dancing and shaking it because even when the team scored a goal during the season, we had never seen him dancing. So, him surprising us like that was another moment to experience. It was something so funny that we speak about it whenever we see him. We'd say, "We know you can move. Can you move a little bit for us?" Whenever there is music playing, you will see him moving and we would all laugh.
You've also played with Oscarine Masuluke at Baroka FC, himself quite the dancer…
Ha, ha, ha, that one is another character. His traditional dances are the best for me. When he's happy in the mornings, you will see him doing the dances. Also, when the coach asks him to do it during the team talks just for fun, he will do it without hesitation, ha, ha, ha.
We've heard a lot about Oscarine in the past from many of his teammates, ha, ha, ha. Thank you so much for your time, man. We loved hearing about Gavin's dancing skills and Jabu's antics in training, ha, ha, ha. We look forward to having you on this page again in future.
Thank you so much for the opportunity. It was great.
IN TOUCH FUN FACTS
Nickname: Mkutu
Marital status: In a relationship
Car: Chevrolet
Boots: Adidas predator
Favourite TV programme: National Geographic channel
Favourite food: Dumplings with mince
Facebook or Twitter: Facebook
Siyagobhoza or interviews: Interviews
Favourite footballer: N'Golo Kante
Favourite celebrity: N'Golo Kante
