‘CRUISER’, THE ENEMIES OF FOOTBALL ARE FROM WITHIN

My dearest readers... So, now that you have read the story on the nauseating Somhlolo National Stadium lights fiasco at the back page. Oh no! You haven’t! You always like to start here reading your column, the state of the nation sports address. That’s fine by me.

So, the truth, which knows no bounds or master, is out. You see essayist Arthur Schopenhauer long observed that the truth goes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed; secondly, it is violently opposed and thirdly, it is accepted as being self-evident.
It is now self-evident that the enemies of football are within the Ministry of Sports, Culture and Youth Affairs.

The Somhlolo National Stadium lights are fully functional and the man-made chaos that occurred over the weekend where fans paid hard-earned money to watch games that had to be called off, could have been avoided with just one phone call. My green flies on the wall, told me that one official even boasted that if persuaded he could have easily had the lights switched on like it was the case on Friday night. One of the teams, Mbabane Highlanders has been using Somhlolo National Stadium the whole week. The silence from some quarters on this fact has been deafening but some of us are not surprised.

The national stadium is mistaken for personal property by some officials in a ministry where the tail has been wagging the dog for many years.
Writing open letters is one of my sentimental hates but I find it befitting this Tuesday morning to pen this love letter to the energetic Minister of Sports, Culture and Youth Affairs, David ‘Cruiser’ Ngcamphalala, a man needless to say, I get along very well with. This letter, so to speak, will be from one brother from another mother to another.

Mr Minister, with all due respect, the Somhlolo National Stadium lights issue has been a pain in posterior to every respectable soccer follower in this country. It caused your predecessor, Madam Hlobisile Ndlovu a headache of migraine proportions and she needed copious amounts of water. She said ‘YES’ she was working on it but on the ground, she really meant ‘NO’ because it was never resolved until she vacated office. I understood then because she pronounced publicly that the fairer sex normally says ‘NO’ when they really mean ‘YES’.  The members of the fairer sex are one of a kind. I have always told my friends in our rendezvous weekends when the finest from the Scottish distillers flows like River Nile that if they were good, God would have had one. You can’t live with them but you can’t live without them too. I digress.

shocked

Mr Minister, you were utterly shocked yesterday after having summoned the football leadership and some officials from your ministry to discover that the issue of the problematic Somhlolo National Stadium lights has long been resolved. What is the real problem are the personalities and clash of self-inflated egos in our football. Sadly, the enemies of football are right within your ministry. I am utterly shocked and disappointed Mr Minister too. Infact I am gatvol, livid and perplexed.

Clearly I wasn’t born with enough fingers to show my disdain at this childish and lack of respect for the nation by some of your officials. The blame has been laid solely on the SwaziBank Cup Management Committee (MC) yet some of the officials within your ministry have not covered themselves in glory by simply turning the booking of the stadium into a hobby. From the recent findings, it is easy to tell that in this country even if one had E1 million to spend on the stadium booking, he is likely not to secure the venue just because some power drunk official woke up on the wrong side of the bed that morning or has a bone to chew with you. 

As things were, it would be much easier to book the artistic Nou Camp, home of football royalty FC Barcelona, than Somhlolo National Stadium where you have to massage the egos of a few individuals all the time. Mr Minister, we cannot have a situation where the usage of a national property lies on the hands of a few individuals who can pick and choose without any care in the world.  Somhlolo National Stadium is national property and cannot be treated as some personal property by anyone

. The booking procedures of the stadium should be clear to all and sundry.  We need clear policies which will be laid down and followed to the letter on the bookings of the stadium. This will eradicate the problem of individuals using the stadium to fight personal wars and abuse their power. If I were you I would, at best, rein in the officials or at worst, have them transferred to other ministries because they will create unnecessary pressure for your ministry, which at this juncture you can do without. You have a lot as a minister on your plate to deal with. The Sports Council High Court case, Swaziland’s E3 million debt to Zone VI (and the Anti Corruption should investigate this blatant abuse of public funds because I smell a fat rat here) and of course the Sports indaba, which was recently put on hold.

deliberately

Issues like Somhlolo National Stadium lights being switched on and off deliberately is an administrative one that should be best left in the hands of capable officials within the ministry. But if these people are abusing their power then you ought to act – and act fast. The soccer loving nation is gatvol about the lights issue, paying hard earned money to watch games that never end and be expected to pay even in the replay matches.
Worse still, how do you expect the people who went to the stadium over the weekend to feel when they receive the news that the lights were actually working but could not be turned on because someone didn’t feel like it?

It’s a crying shame, Mr Minister. We cannot just point fingers on the SwaziBank Cup MC for not reading the neon bright warning signs that they should always be pro-active and plan ahead for smallernyana things like ‘extra time’ when the situation could have been avoided with one simple call. This is ridiculous, to put it mildly.

I trust Mr Minister that having stepped in to resolve the matter, for the life of me; we cannot have another situation where a game is called off because of a poor lighting system or worse, an official from your ministry behaving like a misguided missile or the best thing after sliced bread.
Take charge Mr Minister of the situation and keep these errant officials on the leash.

With friends like them, our football needs no enemies!
Then our football will cruise to the right direction with people on board who understand that this game is bigger than them!
Yours in Pandora’s Box……

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