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SIHLANGU ISSUES BIG – ‘COOL CAT’

26/06/2023 16:01:00 Mengameli Mabuza

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MBABANE – Former Eswatini international and Kaizer Chiefs’ legend William ‘Cool Cat’ Shongwe felt there was a long way to go before Sihlangu could be fixed.

The former Manzini Wanderers director, who is employed by South Africa’s pay-per-view channel SuperSport Television as a football analyst in South Africa, was among the many invited guests during the Regional Annual Sports Awards (RASA) held at Esibayeni Lodge in Matsapha this past Saturday night. Eswatini’s taekwondo Artist Sihlelelwe Matsebula was the country’s outstanding performer after he received an award for being the region’s Junior Sportsman of the Year from Minister of Sports, Culture and Youth Affairs Harries ‘Madze’ Bulungu. Swimming sensation Hayley Hoy lost to Christine Mboma for the Junior Sportswoman of the Year. ‘Cool Cat’, as he is fondly known in the soccer corridors, said that the the country needed to do more on the development side.

“We don’t have the resources to start having professional development that will help the players to develop their technique, physical condition at an early stage.This will be an ongoing problem up until we resolve those issues,” he said. Shongwe went on to say that it was a big issue that Sihlangu were going to use the old and tested players in the upcoming Council of Southern Africa Football Associations (COSAFA) Cup in Durban from July 5 to 16, 2023. “It’s a big issue to have an experienced team when the COSAFA Cup is mostly used to test other players and obviously the country is not too happy with the way things are going . “It’s tough to point fingers at the coach because he is having players who are coached at club level, so he can’t have any others who are better. He is facing a situation whereby he has to deal with what is available and I feel like we need to do more on the development side,” he added .

Commenting on RASA, Shongwe felt the event was one of the best. “It was well staged. What I liked is that is was well audited by a qualified company. I feel like the standard in the region is growing with every event that is staged. You got to look at the COSAFA tournament that is conducted in this region and not too many regions have this privilege that we have in the south to stage this type of event,” he said. The Kaizer Chiefs legend further mentioned that the RASA were wonderfully presented.

fantastic

“Its fantastic that the country was able to host the region in such a beautiful event and yes we are not making it in the field of play as much as those colleagues on the other side but at least there is something good we are doing,” Shongwe said. Meanwhile, Sihlangu will be looking to redeem themselves with the COSAFA Cup as their dream of making their maiden appearance in the TotalEnergies Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) finals was shattered after suffering a 0-2 defeat to Togo in a home game played at Mbombela Stadium this past Sunday.
Sihlangu are in Group A with South Africa’s Bafana Bafana, Botswana’s Zebras and Namibia’s Brave Warriors. They will begin their COSAFA journey against Botswana on July 5, 2023 at the King Zwelithini Stadium.