Shakes Mashaba and diplomacy are like the parallel lines of a railway – destined never to meet.
|||Of course we’ve always known that Shakes Mashaba and diplomacy are like the parallel lines of a railway – destined never to meet.
But one would have thought experience has taught the man to be a bit more calculating before expressing himself.
After all this is a man who once lost his job – as coach of the national team – owing to his inability to avoid public outbursts against his employers.
Time and experience, however, appear not to have helped Bra Shakes one bit ... as this week has shown.
Following the shock defeat to Mauratania at the weekend, Bafana Bafana’s coach has once again gone and put his foot in it with utterances that have only served to irk a disappointed football public some more.
The excuses that Bra Shakes put forth for the 3-1 defeat left some of us cringing in embarrassment for a former football star we grew up admiring.
After all this is a man we once used to refer to as the gentleman of South African coaches.
Back then, when he was in charge of the national Under-20 side and later the Under-23s, Mashaba almost always said the right things. Of course he didn’t say a lot then, such was the limited interest in the age group outfits.
But when he did say, you always took notice – Mashaba usually sharing his plans for the team he was in charge of with consummate eloquence.
His squad’s camps were open – Bra Shakes having no problem allowing the media to join in at the team’s lunches and allowing them free access to the players.
It was for this reason, and the fact he got the teams producing good results, that he became a favourite of most.
He did very well with Bafana in his first tenure and was only fired for daring to stand up to his employers – not for bad results.
And so it was with glee that most of us welcomed his return to the post last year. That he then qualified for the Africa Cup of Nations after many moons of us watching as bystanders saw him rise up even further in the popularity stakes.
But then, at the first sight of failure, he goes and loses it again. Now surely that’s not the mark of a good leader.
Yet while Bra Shakes should know better, I find myself pretty disappointed at the media division of the South African Football Association (Safa), who clearly are not doing their job.
A good media team would have anticipated the onslaught that Mashaba faced upon returning from Nouakchott and helped him weather the storm. Instead they left him out to dry and the man duly got his foot in it. What a pity! - The Star
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