More Than Just a Game Page #4

and wha do hey do he momen we sar

picking sides?

ANC on his side, PAC on ha side. Hey?

Righ from he beginning,

l was agains picking eams

according o poliical organisaions.

Tony, i's more complicaed han ha.

You know ha.

Fooball is never jus fooball.

Hey, l don' know wha game

you've been playing, Mark,

bu when l'm playing fooball,

ha is wha l'm doing

and l'm doing i properly.

Bu everyhing ha we do here,

we do i properly.

-You don' have o ell me.

-Bu l do.

We mus keep on saying i.

We mus keep repeaing i.

l's very easy in his place o rerea ino...

l mean, how would you pu i,

''ino familiar hings''?

Like hese safe poliical srucures?

We canno discriminae along pary lines.

Go l hear i righ ha you've pu

a clause of non-discriminaion

in he Manong consiuion?

Exacly righ.

Today Manong, omorrow

he Makana Fooball Associaion,

and nex year FlFA.

lf we're going o do his,

we're going o do i righ.

And ha's he FlFA way, or no way a all.

Tha is why l recruied Lizo,

an African Naional Congress member,

into my team, Manong,

which was predominantIy

a Pan-Africanist Congress members cIub.

Our moo was ''A lapile'', which lierally

mean ''The vulures are hungry''.

We stood for soccer and not poIitics.

Our team's aims were very cIear.

One, to promote and demonstrate soccer.

Two, to spread sportsmanship

and comradeship on the isIand.

The third one was to ensure that

every abIe-bodied person

was taught soccer on the isIand.

Penaly! Penaly! Penaly! Penaly!

They're no geing ha ired any more.

You know, l'm seeing a seady

improvemen in our play, Marcus.

For one, beer discipline from he players,

and for wo, you know,

beer coaching mehods

are being employed. l'm really happy.

Pass he ball!

You have o admi, n Sedick,

he sandard of play is now really good.

Absoluely. And i's also having

a remendous impac on our morale.

Through footbaII, we couId reaIise

and make a statement

abou our humaniy, abou ourselves.

l's for enjoymen, i's for relaxaion.

l is for fun, i is o give

an opporuniy for people

to get away from the hardships

of the present.

We worked hard to keep footbaII together.

Tha Duze basard can play.

Hey, Duze!

l don' hink l'd be wrong if l say

soccer saved many of us on the isIand.

lndres Naidoo and Dedick lsaacs

were our adminisraors.

They could no play very well,

but they were very good administrators.

You know, when peopIe see that reams

and reams of minutes and notes we kept,

they might find it strange

that we created such a Iarge bureaucracy

of our sport

and our associations there on the isIand.

But that's the way we fought the StruggIe.

Tha was he sysem we came ou of.

Wha we did, we did properly, horoughly,

and we applied ha on our spor.

Sunday to Wednesday to do post-mortem.

Wednesday we're pIanning for Saturday

and if perchance here were delays,

if for some reason,

he warder did no urn up on ime,

we wouId end up fiIIed with anxiety.

Hey, hey, wha's all his?

Ah, Mr Malan, you know we only have

from 9:
00 unil 1 1 :00.

l'm sure i's abou 9:15 now.

l's jus five pas.

We can' run our prison according o

your sporing imeables, hey, Dhinners?

Eish, Warder Malan,

i's jus ha we don' have a lo of ime.

You've go fifeen years, Dioo!

You've go pleny of ime.

Dwar says las week

you didn' play oally crap.

Gid you wach?

No.

Are you going o wach now?

Come people!

Move i!

Your five minues will become en,

hen you're going o file a complain

agains us...

...hen we'll have o si wih Gelpor in

he quarry, because you waned o chi cha.

Come on, le's go!

Warder Malan is now speaking Xhosa?

Hey, Wena, l wonder wha Warder Gelpor

would say, Warder Malan?

Dilence!

Ja, ha is exacly wha he would say.

PIaying footbaII was the onIy time

we were out in the open,

away from the ceIIs

and not doing any hard work of the quarry.

It was so wonderfuI to feeI the sun on you

whiIe you were enjoying soccer.

It brightened us.

Why did l ge a yellow card?

We boh wen for he ball.

Mr Maseko, he Makana Fooball

Associaion Gisciplinary Commiee

has reviewed your case

and we came o his conclusion.

l was a 50-50 siuaion

and you boh wen for he ball.

Bu you, on he oher hand,

deliberaely showed your suds

across he face of he ball,

inending o harm he oher player.

Tha's why you go he yellow card.

Your complain is overruled, Mr Maseko.

Thank you very much.

You may leave he cell.

Gid you ge ha down?

Gefence!

Pass he ball, man!

And then they sent warders

to the mainIand to buy our soccer kit

and we finaIIy got coIour into the game

and into our Iives.

You know, the uniform of a prisoner

is monotonous.

It's the same aII over and aII over,

but now putting something different

wouId pIace us

to a greater extent,

you know, to think that we are outside,

enjoying ourselves ouside prison.

Makana FootbaII Association

was named after the Xhosa chief,

a warrior, who was arrested by the British.

He was taken to the isIand.

He aemped o escape.

He died whils doing ha.

And we honoured him

by naming our Association after him.

This Makana Fooball Associaion,

i was a big hing.

We had over 200 guys pIaying.

For exampIe, there were three teams.

There was the A, B and C.

The A eam was for he op players, whereas

your C eam would be for he real amaeurs,

guys like Dedick, for example.

The A division had three teams.

The B division had three teams.

And the C division had two teams.

The A eams needed chairmen,

and they got the chairmen.

The crieria we had was no he abiliy

o speak refined English,

or a sense of formaI education,

but what we needed was the abiIity to Iead.

The A chairmen were going o be led

by one single chairman,

he Makana Fooball Associaion chairman.

And the guy they eventuaIIy chose,

was a unifying guy, a caIm guy,

a guy ha could debae issues.

He had a fanasic grasp

of he rules of soccer.

Dikgang Moseneke,

I think he was 16 years

when he came to the isIand.

Today, he is he Gepuy Chief Jusice

of Douh Africa.

Yeah, we demanded

o be given a bigger field

where we were going o play our spor.

Regulaion size, o FlFA requiremens.

And so, in 1969, we moved to our new fieId.

WeII, Harry GwaIa was a prominent member

of the Communist Party of South Africa,

but he aIso had

a very deep understanding of sports

in what was known as the SociaIist BIoc,

especiaIIy soccer.

He would know he names

of all he grea soccer players.

Moscow Gynamos, which was

he famous Russian eam.

He was also very sric on he field.

l was no easy for him

o change his decision.

Welcome, genlemen. Firs on our agenda

is a repor back from Marcus Dolomon.

Bu firs he will ake us hrough

maers arising from Daurday's mach.

Oh, he has also advised me ha he would

like o ackle a very imporan issue

before he reads he repor.

Wih your permission, genlemen?

-Yes, sure.

-Marcus, please.

Thank you, Chairman Gwala.

No, i's jus ha, how can l pu i,

we are all players from ime o ime.

We are no only referees.

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