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In 1994, after Orlando Pirates won their first league title in 21 years, the late Lawrence “Big Bear” Ngubane – may his soul rest in peace – told me that it was unacceptable for a club as big as the Bucs to go for three years without a league title.
Ngubane had been brought in by Irvin “Iron Duke” Khoza just for that purpose: to see to it that the club laid its hands on football’s Holy Grail.
Khoza himself had come back from football Siberia in the early 1990s to bring stability to the sinking ship called Pirates.
He did a sterling job to turn the club’s fortunes around from their consistent dalliance with relegation to becoming the force that it had once been.
Their previous league success had come in 1973, when they won every cup that there was on offer.
Khoza had started with Pirates in the 1980s as a gate controller during matches, but later left football to pursue other business interests.
He was brought back by a clique calling itself The A-Team, led by, of all people, Kaizer Motaung.
The A-Team derived their name from their affinity with the German clothing label Etienne Aigner.
They met at several places, including the Devonshire Hotel in Johannesburg and a dilapidated house in Devland, outside Soweto, to socialise and conduct a number of businesses that are not the subject of this column.
Prior to that, Ngubane had guided a then unfashionable African Wanderers to the Mainstay Cup final as general manager. He later led Bush Bucks to the 1985 National Soccer League championship.
It was this experience that saw Khoza rope Ngubane in to assist him achieve his elusive goal.
It proved to be a masterstroke as not only did Pirates go on to win the league in 1994, but, in 1995, they became the first club from southern Africa to annex the African Cup of Champions Clubs, the predecessor to the CAF Champions League.
They still have that lone star on their jerseys.
Their conquests under Khoza’s guidance are countless, but things dried up after those back-to-back trebles of the 2010/11 and 2011/12 seasons.
Since then, it has been a downward spiral as they lost in the MTN8 final in 2013 and, just three months later, succumbed to the same Platinum Stars in the Telkom Knockout Cup final.
They have also, in the recent past, had near-misses in the Champions League.
Enter Kaizer Chiefs!
After going for two seasons without a cup since breaking away from Pirates in 1970, Amakhosi established themselves as “cup kings” after winning the 1972 Life Cup.
They never looked back, leading to their followers being prepared to even bet their wives or houses that, once Chiefs reached a final, they were guaranteed to win.
There were a number of instances – particularly in the 1970s – when the chips were down and the club would force a draw that would cause a replay.
Everybody knew that once a final was replayed, Chiefs would emerge victorious.
I cautioned in March in this same column that the two Soweto giants (using the term cautiously here) were in the same boat and could end this season – the fifth running – empty-handed.
The only difference between the two clubs this past season, which ended with the Nedbank Cup final on Saturday, is that Pirates’ players died with their boots on, while their Chiefs counterparts let go of everything with a whimper.
As we speak, the two clubs are a feast for memes on social media platforms.
The Chiefs side and players who took to the field this season must have made the likes of Ewert “The Lip” Nene, Patrick “Ace” Ntsoelengoe, Petros “Ten-Ten” Nzimande, Ariel “Pro” Kgongoane, Michael “Bizzah” Dlamini and Abednigo “Shaka” Ngcobo, to mention just six, turn painfully in their graves, let alone dismay the former stars who are still alive.
For Pirates, it was a different and painful story because, to be honest, they played the best and most entertaining brand of football. They actually deserved at least one trophy. However, the soccer gods do have their own ideas sometimes.
As for Chiefs, they need to come up with a serious reconstruction and development plan.
The fact that the two club’s supporters are teasing each other on that the one finished second on the log while the other finished eighth, is proof of how the once mighty have fallen.
This must be one of the most trying and challenging times for Khoza and Motaung.
Their next moves will determine a number of things, including showing that they still have what it takes, as well as showing what legacy they will leave for their children and their clubs’ supporters.
At 71 and 74, respectively, do they still have what the rigours of running a big football club take?
Well, we will see!
