The rise and fall of Matsena Giant Killers FC: the greatest team in the history of Sekgosese Football

-

By Mahlomola Martin Lefupana


The decade of the 90’s saw the rise and fall of Matsena Giant Killers as football power house in Limpopo Province. Under the tutelage and coaching of Chris Chaamano, Makhema as Killers is known saw their stocks rise from a small village club to a big provincial team. A few years after Matsena Mosutwa took over of the running of the club, it was transformed into a semi-professional outfit that was to make history. By the mid-90s the names of the players were already on every villageer’s slips. The memories of their games and dominant displays are still very alive in the people’s minds. This is the story of Makhema, the greatest football team ever in the history of Sekgosese football. Makhema were for a short spell magical, unplayable, fantastic, entertaining team and players went from unknowns to heroes and cult figure of our time.  

The Phooko based outfit were on a rampant winning streak winning the promotion to the second division of South African Football and winning the Sekgosese December tournament in the 1995 season, thus providing the happiest and healthiest times in Sekgosese football history. With Matsena as a leader with strong personality, Mokwakwaila Lebea as the cheer leader along with Norman “Santa” Mamanyoha and Sekwekweni “Raiza”, Chris Chaamani as charismatic tactical master mind, Lawrence “City” Machethe leading them, their greatness was there for all to see. They amplified into more than a village team and belonged to everyone in Sekgosese district and surrounding areas.


This was a team whose performance and heroics took them to the last 32 of the Bob Save Super Bowl (now Nedbank Cup in the PSL) against PSL champions Cape Town Spurs in 1996. Their gallant performance took Spurs to the extra time in Thohoyandou Stadium and is still vivid in people’s minds and is a proud moment for all the supporters. It was a team whose players were most sought-after by other PSL teams and ladies of course.  The players transformed football in the area and made it to the dreamland of professional football when Killers played in the MTN League (now First Division) in the 1998 / 1999 season. Makhema made it fashionable for players from all over Limpopo as far as Mokopane, Lephalale, Moletsi, Mankweng, Venda, Giyane and Sekhukhune to come play football in Sekgosese.  

Sadly, in the end, it was a team that blew itself apart from inside, from management, fans and down to the players themselves. This is a very sad story that needs to be told, much of this is not known by many people. Former players, fans, Chris and even Matsena himself have not given public account of what really happened to this historic team. By early 2000 Makhema were back to basics of playing in the local Sekgosese Local League, and this seemed like a dream for some of us who religiously followed and supported this glorious club. It is almost 20 years since Killers played in the First Division, but the memories are still with us. They changed the sports in Sekgosese and also shown us that it is possible to reach the highest level. Beyond all the highs and lows, Makhema entertained, played fantastic football never seen before and boy ooh boy they are historians...



Comments

  1. Unknown6 August 2019 at 17:38

    The first squad was the one took us to last 32 of Bob save

    ReplyDelete
  2. Unknown6 August 2019 at 19:26

    Those were the years, we will cherish them for many many years to come.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

From giants to obscurity: the fall of Moroka Swallows

-
Image
By Mahlomola Martin Lefupana The story of Moroka Swallows’s fall from the grace is all too familiar to some of us. Swallows is a giant of South Africa football, they have a history, heritage and trophy cabinet to be proud of. Their fall from the grace is not a surprise and should not surprise other fans who might be following football partially.  It is recorded that Swallows is the first football club to turn professional in South Africa, by registering as a private entity. This was indeed commendable at the time and true to the ground-breaking innovation, other teams followed the same model of professionalising their clubs. Some of the illustrious and decorated names to have played in the famous colours of maroon and white of the Dube Birds as Swallows is known include luminaries such as Joel “Ace” Mnini, Andries “Chaka chaka” Mpondo, Thomas “Who is Fooling Who” Hlongwane, Owen “Rubber Doll” da Gama, William “Khurra” Makhura, Andries “Six Mabone” Maseko, Frederick ‘Cong
Read more

Social media important to football but remain untapped for many clubs

-
Image
By Mahlomola Martin Lefupana Social media has been one of the most transformative, game changing tool and a leading buzzword of the last decade. Unsurprisingly, Kaizer chiefs are leading social media platforms with a combined following of 5 million people on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube. Pirates comes second with over 3 million on the four platforms, while Sundowns has just over 1 million. The rest of the 13 Premier Soccer League (PSL) have less than half a million each, with Supersport United with over 4 hundred thousand at fourth, while Stellenbosch fc is at the bottom with just over 50 thousand followers across the social media platforms.   The figures for Chiefs and Pirates are impressive enough to put the Soweto clubs in the top 100 of Global Football Digital Benchmark, with Chiefs at 62 and Pirates at 78. However, despite this impressive figure by Chiefs and Pirates, research has identified that there is need for clubs to invest in social media communica
Read more