Ndumiso Mhlongo remembers when Manqoba Mngqithi used to make his players train even when it was thundering.
Mngqithi was the head coach at Moja United, a side in the Vodacom League he took charge of after leaving Maritzburg City.
At City, Mngqithi had been the second in command, appointed at the recommendation of Thabo Dladla. But at Moja, he was now the man in charge and perhaps because he was still a school teacher, he was determined to run a tight ship.
A schoolteacher’s dedication to discipline and hard work was strictly enforced, and on rare occasions, his charges would find themselves on the pitch while lightning and thunder wrought havoc on the sky above. To get to the level he wanted to be in, Mngqithi would do just about anything.
“They would train even if it was thundering. You’re mistaken if you think he’s soft on players; he’s a very stubborn man when he believes in something,” Mhlongo tells FARPost.
His former AmaZulu captain Tapuwa Kapini concurs with Mhlongo on Mngqithi’s mistaken disposition.
“He’s not soft; he’s just kind and will give everyone a listening ear,” says Kapini, who turns out for PSL side Sekhukhune United.
What baffles Mhlongo is exactly how Mngqithi balanced his teaching duties at school and his coaching responsibilities on the field of play. But all he knows is that it all worked out perfectly. He excelled at both with such ease, thanks to his discipline.
“He was a teacher, but he had so much love for coaching. He balanced it quite well; I don’t know how he did it,” says Mhlongo. Mngqithi would have been wearing a suit and tie, standing in front of a chalkboard in another life. But here he was, trying to outdo the raucous thunder as he barked instructions from the touchline.
On the pitch, the fruits of his labour were there for all to see. He took them from the Vodacom League to the second division in his maiden season at Moja. Mhlongo recalls how, even as a rookie coach, ‘TV’ was convinced of his greatness.
“That man does what his second name BRILLIANT says; he trusts himself. His confidence is on another level. Manqoba once told me he would coach one of the country’s big teams. We were still in the Vodacom League at the time. The things he said he would do in his career have all come to pass,” Mhlongo says.
From the first whistle in his first match as head coach, Mngqithi was convinced he could pull off the impossible.
“Durban Bush Bucks were leading us 2-0 at halftime in his first game back in 2001. As he walked towards the players at halftime, he approached me and asked if I thought we would win this game. I said ‘no’. He then said, ‘I’ve won this game’. Indeed, we won it 4-2,” says Mhlongo.
As a teacher, Mngqithi was trained to impart knowledge, to feed young minds thirsty for knowledge with facts and nuggets of wisdom. However, Dladla, who brought the young coach to City, says his greatest gift was an ability to absorb knowledge and a willingness to learn.
“I was involved with Maritzburg City, and I invited him there. I thought that would be an excellent platform for him to learn from.
“It was his passion for the work he was doing that I loved. He had an attitude of wanting to learn; he was also a very open-minded man. I thought the City opportunity would help him; he was eager to learn,” Dladla tells FARPost.
Dladla had met Mngqithi earlier when he was coaching a selected provincial team. In those early stages of their relationship, he says he knew that here was a man that was destined for success.
While he was already quite well known in the lower leagues and around the greater part of KZN, most South African football fans encountered the name Manqoba Mngqithi when he took over the reins at Golden Arrows. Mngqithi was only 36 when he joined the Lamontville side. As one of the fresh faces in the local league, Mngqithi was a beacon of hope for young black coaches who desired the top jobs in the topflight.
“He left teaching when he moved to Durban to work at Golden Arrows,” recalls Mandla Ncikazi, Mngqithi’s former assistant at Arrows. Ncikazi and the 50-year-old met circa 2003 while doing a Level One coaching course in Pietermaritzburg. Their blazing passion for nurturing young talent would flourish at Arrows.
“We wanted young players from the province to go as far as playing international football. We wanted them to make a living out of football and take care of their families. There’s a notion that South African players are not good enough to leave the country and go to England. But one of our players, Kagiso Dikgacoi, went straight from Arrows to England.”
The former Bafana Bafana midfield enforcer, Dikgacoi, joined Fulham in 2009 before stints with Crystal Palace and Cardiff City in England.
While having a young coach in the dugout in the PSL was encouraging, what was even more refreshing was the style of play Mngqithi’s charges played. Few matches in the modern PSL are as memorable as a slick passing Arrows 6 nil demolition of Ajax Cape Town during the 2009 MTN8 final.
“There was a moment when we were leading 2-0, and there was a storm. Manqoba hardly smiled. When we scored the sixth goal, I saw him smile. I saw him smile after a goal for the first time, enjoying the moment when Njabulo Manqana scored the last goal. Arrows played a beautiful brand of football on that day. No final was ever won with that kind of scoreline in South Africa. If I remember well, the club owner had just passed on, and it was like he was with us in the ground. The players wanted to play that match in his memory. We told the players to celebrate his life by winning the game,” recalls Ncikazi, now co-coaches at Orlando Pirates.
Mngqithi – father to prominent actress Asavela Mngqithi of local soapie Isibaya is no longer part of the supporting cast but the main act at Mamelodi Sundowns. He is now the star of the show alongside his co-coach Rulani Mokwena.
Without a doubt, Pitso Mosimane is a tough act to follow, but Mngqithi had to step up and prove that the faith the tzars at Chloorkop have shown in him is not misplaced.
By his admission, many people had been probing him to leave the shadow of Mosimane and take charge of one of the PSL sides. For a good seven years, he sat next to ‘Jingles’, helping him plot opponents’ downfall week after week. And since joining the Brazilians, he has never known how it feels to finish outside the top two. He has experienced an onslaught for the coveted League title each season.
“I was honoured when he approached me to assist him because Sundowns is the kind of club I wanted to join where we fight for trophies. Remember when I joined them, they had not started winning titles under Pitso, but I could see the direction and vision of the club,” Mngqithi told FARPost.
And now, together with co-coach Rulani Mokwena, they are the two men Patrice Motsepe, the Sundowns president, has tasked to take the 10-time champions further than Mosimane ushered them.
For Dladla, who saw Mngqithi’s rise from a district team coach to the man of South African soccer serial champions, Mngqithi has already proved his worth.
“I knew he’d make it. He comes from a rural area, and his success says to young Eastern Cape boys, it’s possible to go all the way and coach a big club like Sundowns. If he could win a cup with a small club like Arrows, I think he will be a success at Sundowns.”
It remains to be seen whether Mngqithi and Mokwena will conquer Africa after winning the 2020/21 PSL title – their first in charge after Mosimane’s departure.
