Alex’s Lusanda Jika of United Stars FC was a football administrator par excellence
JOBURG – Tributes have been pouring in for the late Lusanda Jika, a politician turned football administrator par excellence.
Former long-standing secretary-general of the Alexandra Northrand Local Football Association (ANLFA), Mafika Morajane has paid tribute to the late Lusanda Jika, a former first vice president of the association, describing her as ‘imbokodo [solid as a rock] that never minced her words nor deviated from the truth’.
“Indeed I received that sad news and it never sunk into me that she was no more, even today I still don’t believe she’s no more. I keep thinking I will walk down the streets of Alex and bump into her. Only the Almighty knows why her…why he chose to take her so early at the prime of her life,” Morajane said.
“To Jika’s family, her beloved daughter, Musa, who was always with her mom – be it at the Safa Johannesburg Inter LFA or LFA tournaments, when you see Lusanda nakanjani [come what may] you’ll see Musa, I say to them, football has lost an irreplaceable giant.”
Morajane said she was one of a few people he knew in the LFA that will not mince their words. “To her, if something was wrong, it will always be wrong and she would not give a damn who says what.”
She will be sadly missed by the entirely Alex but more particularly by women who wanted to play football as she had conceived the development of a women football league with Alex schools in conjunction with LFA.
“As the first-ever female LFA deputy chairperson, she took that position with pride and passion and would not tolerate any man wanting to dominate her in whatever she was working on. She was a tough but kind person and once you have listened to her story or idea, you will love her vision,” Morajane said.
To honour her memory, Morajane, who is still active in football but on the referees’ side, called for the establishment of a women’s tournament in her name and the setting up of a women’s football league.
Her chairperson at United Stars FC Sakhile Zulu, where Jika spent more than a decade as the secretary of the club, described her as the pillar of his strength when it came to running the affairs of the club.
“She was a soldier, very intelligent, active, vocal and a fighter for the right cause. I will forever be indebted to her for her work so done meticulously,” Zulu said of Jika, who he recruited to the club in 2013 as a novice when it came to football matters but was quick to learn and master the issues.
A fully-fledged politician and member of the Women’s League of the ANC, Jika then enrolled for a club smart course in 2014 which was organised by the ANLFA and other stakeholders and based on sports administration.
Soon after her course, Jika was appointed as club administrator and in 2015 she was promoted to club secretary-general, a post she held at the club with distinction until her death.
In 2016, she volunteered as part of the ANLFA competitions committee and oversaw the running of tournaments and league games, including being part of the LOC for ANLFA Year End Tournament and the inaugural JM Busha Women’s Tournament for the coming two years.
She was also part of the LOC for the Maimane Alfred Phiri Games representing the ANLFA Competitions Committee for two years and in 2018, she was part of the LOC that organised the sustainable development goals for girls in Alexandra, and that same year she was elected as the first deputy female chairperson of the ANLFA.
The year 2019 saw her start the Alex girls football development where she was mandated to establish a ladies football league in Alexandra by the ANLFA.
Early this year, Jika was chosen to join the ANC’s Joburg region sports, recreation, arts and culture subcommittee and was also nominated for the Johannesburg Women In Sports Awards in two categories of Volunteer of the Year Award and Sports Administrator of the Year and came as a runner-up in both categories.
Related article:
