Most influential SA football visionary? Legends pay homage as King Kaizer turns 80

When a group of footballers who had enjoyed the environment at Kaizer XI in exhibition matches in 1969 and leadership provided by Kaizer Motaung and some innovative administrators, decided to turn it into a club, a giant was born.

Such was the remarkable overnight success Kaizer Chiefs became, and the scale of the monumental institution it grew into that not enough gets said these days of founder Kaizer Motaung the player — “Chincha Guluva” in South Africa and “Boy-Boy” in America.

Motaung Snr — whose son Kaizer Jnr is being groomed in a growing leadership role as sporting director — turns 80 on Wednesday.

The administrator and visionary who has been perhaps the most influential in shaping the landscape of South African football, can stand alone as one of the greats as a player.

Joseph “Banks” Setlhodi was a legendary goalkeeper who was among Chiefs’ founders — along with Orlando Pirates rival Patson “Kamuzu” Banda, arguably the greatest to have taken a field in South Africa. As Setlhodi says, Chincha Guluva was always a step ahead in football.

After starring from 16 as a supremely destructive and skilful attacker alongside Pirates greats including Percy “Chippa” Moloi in the 1960s, Motaung left to turn out in the North American Soccer League (NASL) in its first year of existence.

Motaung top-scored for Atlanta City Chiefs in the 1968 NASL with 11 goals — he would go on to 43 in 105 games in US soccer — and was the league’s Rookie of the Season as his club won the inaugural title. His exploits paved the way for many to follow to US football, one of the few destinations where South African players could find work abroad amid the obscurity wrought on them by apartheid, the ban from Fifa and the sports boycott.

On his return in August 1969, Motaung found three players — Thomas “Zero” Johnson, Edward “Msomi” Khoza and Ratha “Jimmy Greaves” Mokgoatlheng — plus administrator Ewert “The Lip” Nene, expelled from Pirates for taking part in a match in Botswana without informing the club.

They formed the Kaizer XI, borrowing players from clubs to play exhibition matches and tournaments with great success. Using his small childhood family home — the house of the original Kaizer Snr — at 8414 Sentsho Street in Phefeni‚ Orlando West, opposite a football field, as the clubhouse, Motaung did not just borrow Atlanta’s name forming Kaizer Chiefs on January 7 1970. His head was also full of ideas from his experience in the US on how a football club should be run professionally.

The rest is not history because it’s a convenient cliché to neatly summarise what followed — the rest really is history.

“Kaizer was not alone. There was a guy who came back from the US with him, an agent, whose name I don’t remember,” Setlhodi recalled to TimesLIVE Premium this week.

“He came to scout good players who could also play in the US. So now every good player wanted to play along with Kaizer so he could be spotted to go abroad. Kaizer XI was well loved because of the cream of players Kaizer assembled.”

The players tore up their contracts with their old clubs, or at least they would have.

“In those days we never had contracts with our teams,” Setlhodi chuckled. “You could play for one team on Saturday and on Sunday you could play for another.

“It is true that when we were supposed to go back to our teams, one of us — I think it was our captain, Ariel [‘Pro’] Kgongoane — said, ‘Guys, are we going back to our teams while we get paid R10 or 15 there?’ Even if that was good money to play football because we were semi-professional. He said, ‘Why can’t we stay here and open our own team so we can say, this is ours?’

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“[That first conversation] never included Kaizer, Ewert Nene, [another administrator] Gilbert Sekhabi, and the three who were excluded from Pirates — they were not there. This was between the footballers who were supposed to go back to their clubs. And surprise, surprise, all of us said, ‘No, Pro, we are not going back to our teams’.

“The first thing he [Kgongoane] did was to talk to Kaizer Snr [Kaizer's father], because we were using the [family] house as the clubhouse. 

“He [Kaizer Snr] said, ‘Guys, if there won’t be any fight’ ... because in those days, life was different and if you played for another team and changed, with the supporters there was going to be war. But we told him, ‘No, nobody will come and bother us and fight for the players.’

“The players there were not from Pirates or Swallows. If they were, it was going to be a problem. They were the cream of Soweto and would not have allowed their players to go and play for a Kaizer XI. There was no Pimville United [Brothers, or Pubs] player.

“After [Kaizer Snr] said we could go on, that’s when we called Kaizer and the others and told everybody. And we all celebrated there. It was like a new star was born. That duration of a month or so I was there we were together like we had been for life. So Kaizer Chiefs, it’s ours, born from us.”

Soon Chiefs were drawing crowds bigger than those at Pirates, Swallows and Pubs.

“I believe what drew the supporters was a competition where we had the four teams playing in a day. In 1970 you had the four teams — Swallows, Pirates, Chiefs and Pubs — in a tournament,” Setlhodi said.

“Our first game was against Pirates and we won, Swallows beat Pubs in the other semi, then in the final we beat Swallows. It changed people’s minds because a small team had never done that. You couldn’t beat Swallows and Pirates, let alone on the same day. That was when people started to believe Chiefs were the best team and they broke away from Pirates, Swallows and Pubs. It was not easy for them to do that. I believe that day was a turning point.

“You see teams like Barcelona, Man City and Arsenal today, they play football - Chiefs were like that. We played football people enjoyed. We played football with purpose. We had done everything by the book and we were two steps ahead of the other teams.”

Under the visionary leadership of Motaung, with Nene playing a major role, Chiefs were genuinely a brotherhood, Setlhodi said.

“I believe he was born to be a footballer for life,” the goalkeeping great said of Motaung. “Since I knew this man Kaizer, he has never said so much about anything else without [including] football.

“At the clubhouse I used to share a bed with Kaizer. Everyone would share two to a bed — like, ‘Zero’ and ‘Msomi’ did. We used to be more than 17 players there sharing. We were a true family. This thing of the ‘Kaizer Chiefs family’, it’s not [just a modern-day] slogan — it’s a true reflection of how this thing was born. When this team was born we were a family there.”

Motaung would see to it that Chiefs were run like a company, with offices, not easy to achieve under apartheid laws. Even for players just getting to the clubhouse, trainings or matches could be a challenge.

It was very difficult. There was this thing of movement control and passes. Myself and ‘Ace’ Ntoelengoe were from Randfontein, Johnny [‘Magwegwe’] Mokoena was from Pretoria – most of us were not from Soweto,” Sethlodi said. I think I got arrested more than 10 times being at the wrong place at the wrong time. So eventually we were registered as workers with a company in Joburg so we would be allowed to be there. We all struggled. But we had intelligent administrators — we were surrounded by people with ideas.

—  Joseph 'Banks' Setlhodi

“It was very difficult. There was this thing of movement control and passes. Myself and ‘Ace’ [Ntsoelengoe] were from Randfontein, Johnny [‘Magwegwe’] Mokoena was from Pretoria — most of us were not from Soweto,” Setlhodi said.

“I think I got arrested more than 10 times being at the wrong place at the wrong time. So eventually we were registered as workers with a company in Joburg so we would be allowed to be there.

“We all struggled. But we had intelligent administrators — we were surrounded by people with ideas.

“That is why the foundation of that team is huge, and it is still there. People can never believe [with the team struggling recently] that it won’t come back like it used to be — like Liverpool and Man United [when they have been down]. It will always come back.”

Motaung created a giant and, after Pirates and Swallows had laid the groundwork in the 1940s to 1960s, Chiefs raised standards like no other club at the dawn of a national league in South Africa from 1970 in the NPSL; as Mamelodi Sundowns are arguably doing now in the modern era. Even while Amakhosi have not won like they used to for the past two decades, and of course their miserable last decade where they have gone the nine seasons without silverware, Motaung still has overseen the club’s construction of its world class Village in Naturena.

Setlhodi said it was the murder of Nene in 1976, intercepted by angry fans on his way to sign Nelson “Teenage” Dladla from Pilkington United Brothers, that pushed Motaung from being a player-owner to full-time administrator.

“Yes,” Setlhodi said bluntly, asked if he thought Motaung was South Africa’s most influential football figure.

“He was the first South African to go abroad and come back and say, ‘This is how it should be done.’ This man has been ahead in football for decades.

“When it came to the management of the team and players, that guy was amazing. He turned so many things into reality.”

The Premier Soccer League, which revolutionised professionalism in the national league from its launch in 1996, was the brainchild of Motaung and Pirates chair Irvin Khoza.

Another goalkeeper, William “Cool Cat” Shongwe, starred for Chiefs as they remained South Africa’s most dominant team in the 1980s. This even in an era where the amalgamation against apartheid wishes of the three racially segregated leagues from the late 1970s led to an explosion of superb football among some excellent clubs.

The Swazi legend details the personal touch that made Motaung a superb administrator.

“‘Bra K’ means the world for me in the sense that he didn’t send people [to then Swaziland, today's Eswatini] to sign me, he came himself. That was huge for me,” Shongwe said.

“Because I remember my brother who was sort of legally representing me was not too sure if I’d cut it at Chiefs — Chiefs was a big team then.

“So the question he posed to Bra K was, ‘You’ve travelled so far for this young man — how sure are you that he’ll cut it?’ And Bra K’s response was, ‘99% of the players who I’ve gone out to sign make it at Chiefs, so the fact I’ve travelled this far to sign him, it’s a guarantee he’ll make it’.

“You don’t know how much that meant to me, because I myself wasn’t even sure. Yes, I wanted to go to Chiefs, it was all exciting, there was Kaizer in front of you, but in my mind, I was like, ‘Will I cut it? Can I really make it?’ That made a whole lot of difference.”

Unflappable as a leader, Motaung barely ever shows emotion, preferring a quiet word to steer players or club officials in the right direction.

I remember a few after my arrival at Chiefs my dad passed away. So I was broken and in a state. We were staying in Joubert Park — that’s where we were renting a flat, most of the Chiefs players. And he dropped later that afternoon just to pass his condolences personally. So he’s as human being — regardless of his status up there he can come down to that level.

—  William Shongwe

“He’s the calmest individual I know,” Shongwe said. “Running a club can be very taxing mentally, but I don’t remember Bra K screaming, jumping around and not happy. Even if he’s not happy, he’ll still put up this brave front.

“He would come into the dressing room — we would be losing a game, things would be under pressure; he would just come and stand there in the corner as if nothing had happened and just listen to the coach’s instructions. It would be, maybe walking out ... I remember the one time he pulled me aside and said, you’re holding the ball too much.

“Like I would come out of the 18-yard line and maybe dribble one attacking player before clearing the ball. Then he pulled me aside and said, ‘Ey, be careful huh, they are watching you, you are overdoing it’,” Shongwe recalled, laughing.

“And I appreciated that he’d taken the time just to whisper — he didn’t say it in front of everybody, saying something like ‘Be careful!’ like a boss would. He did it so calmly. I walked away feeling good — he didn’t have to expose me in front of everybody.

“That’s the kind of person he is. The calmness. He comes and he just eases through things.

“I remember quite soon after my arrival at Chiefs my dad passed away. I was broken and in a state. We were staying in Joubert Park — that’s where we were renting a flat, most of the Chiefs players. And he dropped in later that afternoon just to pass his condolences personally. So he’s a human being — regardless of his status up there he can come down to that level.”