The Castle Premier Soccer League has decided to celebrate the new year with a fixture paying tribute to the old. Orlando Pirates take on rivals Moroka Swallows at the Johannesburg stadium in the country’s oldest and most continuously played fixture. It has been more than 55 years since these two sides first met, making this clash the original Soweto derby.
But how the mighty have fallen. Once a showstopper on the footballing calendar, this fixture will be played on the same day as a Bafana Bafana match against Mauritius — and no one has raised concern about the two being possible counter-attractions for each other.
The teams that have produced some of the greatest local players of all time, such as Differ ‘City Council†Mbanya, Joel ‘Ace†Mnini and Aubrey ‘The Great†Makhopela (Swallows), Jomo Sono, Kaizer Motaung and Patson Banda (Pirates), today have no players in the senior national side.
One of the saddest facts about South African football is the lack of reliable records. In that case, as with the rest of black South African history, one is left with oral history.
One such oral historian is former Swallows public relations officer Godfrey Gxowa, who has made it his business to inform anyone who will listen about the number of times they have played each other (now well more than 100), and the statistics relating to matches won, lost or drawn.
Unlike the more attractive and emotionally charged Pirates-Chiefs derby, the match between the Birds and the Bucs has been about mutual respect and recognition of each other’s role in helping their then-disrupted society find something to be proud of.
The two teams’ establishments — 10 years apart — have a few similarities. Pirates were founded in 1937, largely by youngsters recently arrived in Orlando after they and their parents were forcibly removed from Prospect (near the Doornfontein stadium where Saturday’s fixture will be played).
Swallows, founded as Congregated Rovers after the firm in which most of the players and officials worked, later changed their name to Moroka Rovers.
In October 1947 they became Moroka Swallows, basing themselves in the township that was formally a shantytown called Masakeng. Like Pirates’ Orlando base, Moroka was the new home to a growing number of formerly rural communities searching for fortune in the City of Gold.
For both communities, football and boxing were the only pastimes through which young men could become heroes and household names.
As a result Pirates fans — notorious for forcing everyone leaving a stadium, regardless of who they support, to show loyalty to Pirates by showing the Buccaneers’ cross-bones sign — accepted defeat by Swallows as succumbing to fellow ‘clevers†(street-smart urban dwellers).
Players such as winger Lucas ‘Makhokhoba†Sebona and Benedict ‘Tso†Vilakazi may get a chance to show suspended national coach Ephraim ‘Shakes†Mashaba they are worthy replacements for players whose club commitments and injuries have ruled them out of the African Cup of Nations finals. Mashaba, incidentally, is a former captain of both clubs.
This week, the glory of the past will mean little to the players and coaching staff as they attempt to better their log positions.