WHERE does Minister Fikile Mbalula get off insulting our heroes and role models, labelling them "a bunch of losers and useless individuals who have no respect for their country"? Who does he think he is?
Bafana Bafana played poorly in the last match of the African Nations Championship (Chan) tournament, worse still, on home soil. They could have done better, exerted themselves far better than they did, especially considering they were playing against a Nigerian team that featured none of its international stars while Bafana had pretty much the core of the national team.
However, Mbalula has no right to use insults, painting the South African soccer players as worthless people who have no desire or passion to win for their country. The language he used was shocking, especially coming from a government minister.
Clearly he has no respect for the Bafana players. These guys work hard, they train daily - he doesn't.
What he also seems to forget is that these are our heroes. My son looks up to these guys.
Mbalula went on to rant about mediocrity and blamed teams that refused to release their players. He then asked, rhetorically, whether the best team was fielded on Sunday.
Is that dumb or what? Well, the way I see it, here's a guy who knows nothing about soccer, who's clearly never played the game, insulting people who sacrifice their time and effort to play for their country. Our minister has no idea of the passion these guys have for soccer and playing for their country.
Incidentally, how many times has the South African cricket team failed to win a significant tournament? They have even been tagged "chokers", but has Mbalula ever publicly insulted the cricket guys? No.
Maybe the minister needs to take a good look at himself and his government before spewing abuse at soccer players. It's not like he is a minister famous for being diligent and useful, well unless you consider splashing government money diligent and useful.
Luvuyo Mjekula, Xolani Location, Grahamstown
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