Mzolisto, let's do this again and again! Last week, we put a pause while you were still telling us a story about how you got the kit manager job at Manning Rangers. Let's carry on from there…
So, I had gotten the job as kit manager at the club, but there was another boy who was there. I think he was also, like, a kit manager or a ball boy. He came with Afzal Khan, who was the manager at Manning Rangers. When we started training, I took a bucket to go get water to make juice for the players. Then I also saw him grabbing a bucket, and I said to him, "Who are you? Why are you grabbing a bucket? This is my job." Then he says, "I know Afzal, I am also like a kit manager here." At that time, I was ruthless, so I took out an okapi and I said, "You must never come back here", ha, ha, ha.
Ha, ha, ha, that's crazy, Zola! You failed the trial as a soccer player, there was no way you were going to let the kit manager gig slip through your fingers.
I told him never to come back, and he didn't come back. A few days later, I went to Afzal's house because that's where we used to prepare the kit. I was there at his house and Afzal said, "Come here. Why did you take out a knife and chase away that boy? He told me he is scared to come to training", ha, ha, ha. At Rangers, I used to fight on the bench and all that. I was still young. If there was a bad decision that the referee made, I would jump and I would have a go at the opposition player as well. I was not scared! Whenever I had these fights, the chairman, Kaycee Reddy, would come in and say, "I want you guys to be like Zola. Well done for fighting and I give you R500 bonus." So, I was always fighting, until one day he called me to the office to show me a summons from the League. I had gotten a red card because I had punched Papi Khomane. So, the chairman called me and he showed me a fax from the League. The fax was saying I needed to appear before the PSL (Disciplinary) Committee for bringing the League into disrepute. So, Kaycee said, "Do you see what you did now? Are you going to pay this fine?" By the way, I was only earning R250 a month at that time. He was like, "I am going to deduct it from your salary."
Ha, ha, ha. But this was the man who was praising you for 'fighting', and now he wanted to deduct money from your salary?
He told me that I should just get there and plead guilty. I got there and pleaded guilty, and I got a suspended sentence.
Good. Give us more from your time at the Mighty Maulers. Evidently, there was never a dull moment there.
At Manning Rangers, during the 2003/04 season, the club was struggling financially. I think they would borrow money from the League and patch up whatever they needed to. Then, I think the League would deduct money from the grant, so we would always get paid late. I remember Dillon Sheppard's father (Dougie Sheppard) was a masseur, but he was also driving. He had a minibus. The other minibus of the club was kept by Dan Malesela because he was like a boss there. So, on the 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th or 10th, Sheppy would tell us that he had a cheque. So, he would instruct us to go to Chatsworth at the Standard Bank. We'd only get paid at Chatsworth Standard Bank. So, we would race there. We had to race there to try to get there first because when you got there, the cheque of the club would bounce after a lot of people had taken the money, ha, ha, ha. When we got there, the tellers would say the guys who were earning R2 000 or less, or let's say from R5 000 downwards, had to stand in one queue. Then the guys who were earning R5 000 or more would be told to stand in a different queue. Everybody would be there because we were all waiting for our salaries. They would give you cash. You would see the guys with big envelopes. So, I would go into the queue where it was R5 000 or lower. I was on R2 000, or maybe it was half of that, R1 000. So, I'd go there, and you get to the teller. Then the teller would say, "Guys, can I repeat this? I told you guys that whoever earns R5 000 must be in this line. Like this guy, he earns R2 000 and he is standing here." Imagine how embarrassed I was, in front of the whole team nogal!
What an uncanny way of telling who was getting paid what within the team…
Some years before that, before we started going to the bank, we used to get our salaries cash. Afzal Khan would come with his minibus, and he had envelopes in his hand. Some envelopes would be big and other were small. He would have a gun in his hand and normally he would look around to see if there were no s'gebengus (thugs) to rob him of all that money in his hands. Then he would pay us. I think it was around 1997 and I was maybe earning R450 or R500. So, I started earning R150, then it went to R250 and then to R450. At one point, it had gone up to R750, before I went to Santos in 1999, ha, ha, ha.
Ha, ha, ha, club chairmen were real characters back in the day. A lot has changed, as these days players get their money in their bank accounts, and it's not just small change like R2 000 or R5 000. We bet kit managers are also earning a lot more nowadays, ha, ha, ha. Mzolisto, let's take a water break because we know that there are yet more stories to be shared from the time you spent at Rangers, as well as from Santos down in the Mother City.
Thanks so much, my brother.
IN TOUCH FUN FACTS
Nickname: Mzolisto
Marital status: Married to Portia
Car: Toyota Corolla Professional and Toyota Tazz
Boots: Puma
Favourite TV programme: The River
Favourite food: SA traditional food
Facebook or Twitter: Both
Siyagobhoza or interviews: Interviews
Favourite footballer: Zinedine Zidane
Favourite celebrity: Pep Guardiola
