By Chris Totobela
Makana Tigers FC chairman Thandisizwe “Tebi” Matebese was in the hotseat this week for Grocott’s Mail’s Chairman’s Corner’s feature.
GM: Welcome to our Chairman’s Corner and please tell us about Makana Tigers.
TM: Thank you for this opportunity. I established this club in 2019,which was the best thing to do after hanging up my boots long before that. After coaching teams around Makhanda I decided to form my own club. There is a very high rate of alcohol and drug abuse amongst our youth, and I felt like doing something.
GM: How has the club grown since then?
TM: The club has grown rapidly since then and we now have an u13, u15, 7u18 and senior team and we also have a netball team and all these teams are doing very well in their respective divisions.
GM: What are your achievements at the club?
TM: We have finished in the Top 4 in the Makana Premier League since our establishment. We finished third and won bronze medals in the first edition of the Superbowl Easter Tournament behind Makhanda’s football giants Maru FC and XI Attackers FC. We controversially lost to the eventual winners in the semi-final of last year’s New Year’s Cup and the list is long.
GM: Are there any challenges that you have faced since you started the club?
TM: Parents don’t want to support their children when it comes to sport, and as coaches and managers, we are forced to pull all the stops to make sure that these children have everything they need. They don’t even come to the field to watch their own children. As clubs we are competing against taverns and drugs as every corner you turn, you see a tavern or shebeen, but very few playing fields.
GM: What do you think of the current state of football in Makhanda?
TM: Except the recent success of Maru FC, our local football is a mess. When last have you seen our premier league clubs play? No one is telling us what is going on and we don’t even know when the new season will start and our players are going back to the same crime, alcohol and drug abuse we were trying to save them from. In the past, we used to have tournaments throughout the year to keep our clubs active because we were led by people who knew what they were doing and who were passionate about football.
To be honest with you, I don’t have a clue of what is happening in our football and all I know is that we are always paying huge sums of money to play in sponsored tournaments and we don’t even know where that money is going to. Just go and look at the state of the field we are using –torn nets, no lines and the less I talk about the officiating the better, and the officials don’t come and explain to us, they just run to social media and not come to us as their affiliates. I call upon all football loving people to come out and save our football before it is too late.
GM: Your last word to the Makana Tigers faithful?
TM: I would like to thank them for following this club and I promise them that we will try and push for promotion when the new season starts. It is one of my wishes to see this club playing in the regional league and to move away from this stress of local football. We will continue to produce young talented players.
GM: Thank you for your time and we wish you all the best with your club.
TM: You are welcome and thank you for always giving us a chance to express our frustrations. Lastly, when we criticise the way our football is run, it is nothing personal as football belongs to all of us. No individual is bigger than football. Thank you to you and your team for the great work you are doing for our sport in Makhanda.
