Trouble seems to follow the Vilakazi family. A day after Orlando Pirates midfielder Benedict Vilakazi was charged with rape, his wife, Motshabi, was charged with assaulting the 15-year-old girl who accused her husband of rape.
Motshabi appeared in the Booysens Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday. Charges of assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm were laid and she was granted bail of R1 000. Benedict Vilakazi has been granted R10 000 bail.
Benedict will next appear in court on March 31, while his wife will appear on March 15.
The Vilakazis got married in May last year, but before the wedding there was another cloud over Benedict. A former girlfriend told the Sunday Sun that he was using his younger brother’s name and identity and that the Pirates player’s real name is Bongani.
The diminutive player maker denied the allegations of rape this week, just has he had rejected the claim that he was an age cheat.
Orlando Pirates stripped him of the captain’s armband but continue to allow him to play. On Wednesday night, he scored the first goal and ignited the rest of the team to a 3-1 victory against Manning Rangers.
Pirates’ supporters seemed unfazed by the rape charge and chanted his name when the team walked into the stadium. There were also posters saying the player is innocent.
Vilakazi first came to fame in 1997 while captain of the national under-20 team that qualified for the World Championships in Malaysia. He has since gone on to become an integral part of the senior Bafana Bafana team set-up.
By being captain of both the under-20 and under-23 national sides, he had cemented his status with the fans. But before that, the youngster was already popular in his township of Diepkloof, Soweto. Vilakazi showed that he was destined for great things in one of the most celebrated soccer tournaments in the township.
For thousands of fans attending the Godfrey Moloi Games in Mapetla, Soweto, the sight of a gifted yet unheralded youngster touching shoulders with household names is a norm. Yet on an afternoon in December 1995, a youngster wearing the number 10 jersey in the same team as John ”Shoes” Moshoeu sent a message to those at the ground next to the Merafe hostel: he must be special.
”Shoes” had always worn the number 10 jersey — one of the highest honours that can be bestowed on a player— at every local side he had played for, from Giant Blackpool (later renamed Highlands Park) to Kaizer Chiefs and the national side.
The youngster, whose homeboys from Diepkloof, cried ”Tso, Tso, Tso, Tso” each time he touched the ball, wore ”Shoes’s jersey” and in that way he attracted attention.
He did not disappoint. ”Tso” led from the middle of the park and seemed unperturbed about playing in the shadow of Moshoeu, one of South Africa’s truly great players.
It was therefore unsurprising for anyone who had seen him strut his stuff for Diepkloof at the Moloi Games to see a picture of him and then Orlando Pirates coach Victor Bondarenko, at the announcement that the youngster had been promoted to Pirates’ first team along with his teammate from the youth structure Rodney ”Chippa” Petlele.
The two had also played together for their local high school, Madibane High in Diepkloof. They were part of the team — including current Pirates’ second-choice goalkeeper Thabani Stemmer — that won the South African schools competition, giving them the passport to represent South Africa at the world school’s competition in Peru in 1995.
Madibane had roped in Pirates’ head of development, Augusto Palacios, as the technical adviser.
It so happened that Palacios was starting a youth development programme at Pirates at the time and the three players impressed him enough to persuade them to join the fledgling academy. For Vilakazi, this meant bidding farewell to his teammates at Diepkloof Hellenic, where Supersport winger Dikgang ”Terminator” Mabalane was a teammate.
Tso got his debut under Bondarenko, but the coach seemed to prefer the lanky Petlele to the stocky Vilakazi. It was under Gordon Igesund that Tso saw more game time and was rewarded with his first championship medal.
From there, Vilakazi continued to rise in stature. He has been one of a few players in his generation to fulfil his potential and seems destined for greater things.
But if he is convicted, the spine of Pirates that won the league a season ago will have disappeared.