Hypothesis. The commodious online Dictionary.com defines it as “a proposition set forth as an explanation for the occurrence of phenomena accepted as highly probable in the light of established facts”
And so, from the discerning follower of the game to the fanatical rooter, everyone has their theory about why the once-mighty Bafana Bafana are floundering.
Recently, a muti man from Ulundi ventured his hypothesis, albeit as fact, for Bafana’s abiding bluntness in front of goal – he has locked up all Bafana goals in a bottle of muti because he has a score to settle with SA Football Association (Safa) officials. He claims they have been withholding a balance of R90 000 for services rendered.
It’s okay to wonder “for what?” – I’m struggling to keep my ribs from splitting; an absolute rib-cracker, this theory.
For those who may be in the dark, allow me to bring you up to speed. During the World Cup, the bumbling Safa silk suits reportedly enlisted the services of Sibonelo Madela; muti has been integral to the local game. It even has a name, albeit a euphemistic one: “special projects”.
Even pale males can attest. Fellow columnist and former Bafana coach Clive Barker can regale you with anecdotes of the itching from intelezi (medicine) on a melanin-deficient skin. No laughing; this is a matter of national importance.
Safa spin doctor Dominic Chimhavi has said association vice-president Mwelo Nonkonyana paid Madela R10 000, but it was out of goodwill and “during the euphoria of the World Cup”.
Paid “out of goodwill”? I smell a rat here.
Naturally, my chums and I have our theories on the dearth of goals. Biggs’s is that there is credence in the muti man’s claim; pay Madela and Bafana will start to hit the bullseye.
“It is not coincidence that Bafana have not won a game since the muti man said they would not succeed until Safa settled their debt,” said Biggs.
And Man of Letters agrees, while Mavovo is reticent (has he lost form? He has been in fine fettle lately, dishing out pearls of wisdom).
So frustrated is Man of Letters that, in true warlord fashion, he is threatening to lead a one-million-men march to Safa House to force the bosses to pay Madela.
My take is that a quality premiership and sound administration by the Safa administrator, not some rabbit’s foot from Madela, will bring back the glory days for Bafana.
Even one Phephisile Maseko, of the Traditional Healers’ Organisation, agrees with my cynical self. The Independent on Saturday quoted her at the weekend as saying: “In soccer anything can happen and luck is a major factor.” She stopped short of saying luck and other factors (such as better planning), not muti, influence results.
Bafana’s misfortunes stem from mismanagement and a host of other things – such as the ever declining standard of the local premiership, unwittingly engineered by premiership club bosses Kaizer Motaung, Irvin Khoza and Jomo Sono, and, to a lesser extent, Patrice Motsepe (Mr Moneybags can be forgiven as he is relatively new in the game and, therefore, not streetwise in soccer terms).
Their clubs’ successes of recent times have been anchored on foreign marksmen, a quick fix to a structural problem, thus denying the national team a pool of homegrown lethal goal poachers.
It’s thanks to these soccer supremos and half-hearted, but obscenely paid, players that Bafana have been reduced to competing in continental tournaments on the basis of being hosts, which gives them automatic qualification.
Local clubs are not even ruling the roost in lowly southern Africa. And it did not start during or after 2010. Orlando Pirates have just bombed out, spectacularly, of the (continental) Champions League, succumbing to some unfancied outfit from lowly Angola. I mean Recreativo do Libolo is no Zamalek or Al-Ahly, the proven giants of Africa.
And there are the facts. How the mighty have fallen for the nation to pin Bafana’s free fall down to muti conspiracy theories.
