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Bafana Bafana coach Shakes Mashaba has been giving some pearls of wisdom to the media – a field he knows zilch about.
I have some advice in return for my grootman, ngicela uwubonge umsebenzi! Just say thanks, but no thanks to this job.
Selecting Bafana Bafana players is your prerogative, just as the country’s Number 1 recently reminded us that “I am in charge”.
However, for quite some time now, your selections have been way off the mark. So have your tactics, with your diatribes being even worse.
You have become like an old dog whose bark is louder than his bite.
After a good start, where you stuck to your promise of selecting players based on form, which led to the team cruising through the Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) 2015 qualifiers, things went pear-shaped at the tournament proper.
You became big-headed and a law unto yourself, and your stubbornness saw the team bomb out of the first round without a single win.
The main reason for such bad results was your unnecessary tinkering with the starting line-up that saw you doing something unheard of in football circles: playing three different goalkeepers in Bafana’s trio of opening matches.
Afterwards, you told all and sundry that the 2015 Afcon tournament was not your mandate. Yours was to qualify the team for the 2017 version and the 2018 World Cup in Russia.
That’s all well and good.
But then the team lost 3-1 to Mauritania, of all nations, following a goalless home draw against Gambia.
And what was your response?
“Apology for what? Didn’t this team ever lose? Did the people expect it never to lose?”
OK, when you have made a boo-boo, you concede. But not you, Sir.
Oh! You went further and offered some nuggets of wisdom when asked what analysis you had done before the match.
“Our video analyst did nothing … we didn’t have videos of Mauritania … It’s an internal problem … we never sent anyone to monitor Mauritania.”
Did you just crawl out from under a rock somewhere? This is modern football, and this country is blessed with some of the best technology you can find.
And to prove that you still live in the Stone Age, when Robert Marawa told you that goalkeeper Itumeleng Khune had said in an interview that the players had used Google to gather a bit of information on Mauritania, you went ballistic.
“Was Khune using Google for himself, or for the team, or what? Khune didn’t do it on behalf of my team … I’m disturbed hearing you talking about my captain using Google,” you vented.
By that time, I had thrown in the towel on you, Sir.
And then, before last Saturday’s crucial match against Cameroon, when calling players to replace those who were injured, you spewed: “What we are saying is that we look at the big-match temperament. But in the absence of the best, at times you have to use the worst.”
How do you tell players who are expected to be on national duty that they are “the worst”?
After the goalless draw in Durban on Tuesday, you started blaming everybody except yourself, lashing out at everyone, from the media to Premier Soccer League coaches and even technical director Neil Tovey.
Well then, Honourable Mashaba, if you don’t have the answers and the blame lies everywhere but with you, isn’t it time you saved the nation, yourself and your beloved family further frustration and just walked?
Keep on walking and don’t look back!
If you looked around, you would realise that you are now the only one who thinks you’re doing a great job. And that’s tantamount to living in a fool’s paradise, Sir!
Follow me on Twitter @Sbu_Mseleku
