It may be that the enduring memory about Solomon ‘Stix†Morewa will be when, as the president of the South African Football Association (Safa), he was told to quit or be fired by the government-appointed Pickard commission into irregularities in the game.
That would be, however, only one of the chapters in a biography of a man who did more good than harm during almost 40 years of involvement with soccer.
Though Morewa seemed to dominate for a long time, he was at the helm of Safa for only three years. He quit in 1994 after Judge Jan Pickard found that Morewa and the marketing company tasked with attracting backers for football, Awesome Sport International (ASI), had pocketed 25% of sponsorship raised. Morewa had neglected to tell his Safa colleagues of the R500 000 loan he had received from ASI director Brian Mahon.
It was a sad end for a man many regarded as one of the country’s best football administrators ever. There had been a sense of relief when it was announced in 1985 that ‘Stix†was to return to lead the domestic game.
Times were tough. George Thabe, the supremo of local football, had just been toppled in a palace coup by his lieutenants Cyril Kobus and Abdul Bhamjee.
Morewa got his nickname because of his thin legs when he unsuccessfully tried to make his name as a player for Potchefstroom Young Stars. He had the wisdom to accept he had limited talents on the pitch and was soon showing off his skills as an administrator of Young Stars, who were among the best teams in the region in the 1960s and 1970s.
Not long after he had made his mark in the Western Transvaal, Morewa was elected secretary of the Transvaal Football Association, where he served with the likes of Leepile Taunyane, Knox Matjila and Bethuel Morolo.
It was the dawn of a new era when he took the helm of the (black) Soccer Association of South Africa — the amateur arm of the National Soccer League (NSL) spawned when clubs freed themselves from Thabe.
In 1988, he led the delegation to meet the exiled African National Congress and returned with the disappointing message that the party would not give its blessing for readmission to the world game as long as there were racially exclusive bodies.
Morewa immediately worked on unification with the white National Football Association and the Indian/Coloured SA Soccer Federation to form Safa. He was rewarded by being able to preside over the country’s return to the international fold in 1992. Morewa, ever the go-getter, told a sceptical nation of the intention to bid for the World Cup.
Ironically, it was the good times that led to Morewa’s fall from grace. Having shown that he could attract big corporates to the sport, regional structures that were meant to play a watchdog role trusted Morewa too much.
To them, Morewa was a man of impeccable integrity. He had served time on Robben Island for furthering the aims of the Pan Africanist Congress.
It appears Safa has not fully learned its lesson. ‘Morewa was a good administrator but because we are not vigilant we destroy our own colleagues by not making them accountable,†remarked Nkosi Mwelo Nonkonyane, newly elected Safa vice-president.
Solomon ‘Stix†Morewa, born June 26 1944, died September 25 2005