If Bafana are losers, so is Mbalula and SAFA

Bafana Bafana were a pathetic bunch of losers, but so is Sports Minister Fikile Mbalula. The cadre behaved like a school principal who spend the whole year doing nothing but parade the classrooms and when the final results came had the guts to call his students, a "bunch of losers".

The pathetic nature of Bafana Bafana's performance isn't something new, even to himself. Mbalula did not wake up to a surprise performance by the boys on Sunday night. It is something that has been going on for a very long time, stretching far back into the days before he even became a minister and of which he is well aware of. Now to single out the boys as the root cause of the problem is like doing the very same thing that he dismissed i.e. singling out the coach as the problem.

The boys are a product of a system of which several institutions are charged with the responsibility to manage at different levels and ensure a credible product at the end. Namely the Premier Soccer Soccer (PSL), South African Football Association (SAFA) and the Sports Ministry.Unfortunately the system is wreaked with incompetency, in-fighting, jostling for positions mediocrity, and lack of patriotism. The system that goes to great lengths to plan for mediocrity tolerates and even commends it - a reflection of the broader societal problems.

I pause to wonder what plan did he have when took over the Sports Ministry to try and remedy the situation with our squad. It is well known that he is championing the schools leagues program, which is a good start and he must be commended for it.

This then gives us the impression that he understands the problems in the system. Therefore we would be pardoned to expect him to be the first in Bafana's defence to say, our system is pathetic, but we are working on it and this is the plan.

If Bafana Bafana are a pathetic bunch of losers, so is he; and the whole of South Africa.

Ke fetsa ke realo!

By Benny Hlakole