After two dismal seasons on and off the field, the appearance of Amazulu among the last four clubs remaining in the Nedbank Cup represents a fragile chance to reclaim a tarnished legacy.
Last season the lads from the coastal kingdom finished second last on the log, but escaped relegation from the Premiership by winning play-offs against rivals from the lower first division.
This year hasn’t been that much better. Until AmaZulu secured its Absa premiership future with a 1-0 win over Bidvest Wits on Wednesday, it was still living in fear of relegation. It is now 12 points from the bottom of the table with three matches to go.
Off the pitch, things are even dicier. AmaZulu owner Patrick Sokhela is in trouble with his creditors. Again.
Sokhela has had to come up with last-minute financial plans before — notably when Pat Malabela, who sold Amazulu to Sokhela, moved to recover R25-million of the R38-million purchase price that had not been paid. The team could easily have been auctioned off to the highest bidder.
This time Sokhela is accused of paying for AmaZulu with money that should have gone to pay back the people who funded his bid to become a sugarcane magnate.
The club’s fortunes are now precariously dependent on how Sokhela sorts out his finances.
Against this backdrop, Amazulu’s march to the Nedbank semis should provide a much-needed fillip for players and supporters of a club with an extraordinary history.
Amazulu was founded by Zulu migrant labourers in Durban in 1932 and fell under the patronage of Zulu King Cyprian Bhekuzulu ka Solomon. It is as steeped in tradition and folklore as the nation founded by the warrior king Shaka himself.
Many football fans mistakenly believe Orlando Pirates is the oldest club in the country — partly because the Bucs do celebrate birthdays publicly (albeit sometimes a year later than the one they say they are commemorating). Few are aware that AmaZulu was already five years old when Pirates first kitted out.
Another Durban club, African Wanderers, is even older, having been founded in 1908.
Unfortunately, unlike the legendary king of a people who lent the club their name, Usuthu’s many deaths come by way of the club’s incredible knack for falling on its own spear.
Considering that Shaka was himself done in by his brother, maybe the self-destructive instincts are in the club’s DNA. But in football fortunes can change beyond recognition in a mere hour and a half.
Expect Sunday’s Nedbank Cup semifinal fixture against Mamelodi Sundowns in Potchefstroom to be more than another football match for the proud club and its even prouder supporters. These days the name AmaZulu is too often uttered only in vain, and few of the current players were even born when it first struck fear into the hearts of opponents. These players need to be reminded that they are part of a long and distinguished South African football history.
The club’s battle cry, inyoka eluhlazana, umabonw’abulawe (the mighty and aggressive green mamba that strikes such deep fear among its foes that it must be killed on sight) derives from its green strip. And when the team clad in those jerseys trot on to the pitch on Sunday, it will be to do more than to book a place in the final.
It will be to remind us all that AmaZulu, and not their foes, are the keepers of the memory of a time when football was purely a working-class and peasant pursuit.
Their opponents, Sundowns, represent a different world altogether. The PSL’s most successful club has five league championships under its belt. It is also the league’s richest club, owned by South Africa’s third richest man, Patrice Motsepe.
Unlike AmaZulu, Sundowns has a middle-class birth, having been founded by a group of Mamelodi, Pretoria, doctors and later sold to what everyone thought was a self-made millionaire, Zola Mahobe.
It turned out that Mahobe was not exactly self-made, but had arrived at his millionaire status after helping himself to Standard Bank fortunes.
Imagine the thoughts among those bank’s executives who were around at the time when Standard was named as a potential sponsor for the club after it severed ties with cellphone company MTN earlier this year.
Sundowns fans need little reminding of their club’s glory; they have a trophy room brimming with evidence and know almost nothing but success. They would not savour victory nearly as much as Usuthu, whose fans are hungry to see themselves in a cup final.
Free State Stars meet first division side Mpumalanga Black Aces in the other semifinal at Atteridgeville, Pretoria’s Super Stadium, on Saturday.