Rangers musketeers deliver club to SAB League
ALEXANDRA – Mafika Morajane says he jumped at the opportunity and soccer lifeline thrown at him by John Mnisi.
The long lost prodigal son of Alexandra Northrand Local Football Association (LFA) is back on the soccer pitch ‘to do what I love most’.
Former secretary-general of the Alex Northrand LFA, Mafika Morajane is back in soccer and has just played a crucial role in securing promotion for Rangers FC to the SAB League.
Morajane quit the helm of local football in 2019 when he and other executives were ousted following infighting within the association and spent a year in the wilderness. He resurfaced as part of the Rangers technical staff in September last year when amateur football was allowed to return to the pitch following the Covid-19 forced closure last year.
He joined Rangers after he was approached by former club chairperson John Mnisi, who wanted his soccer expertise to be utilised in the club’s battle for promotion after five years of trying with no success.
“I jumped at the opportunity and soccer lifeline thrown at me by John, and I can safely say it’s a job well done on my part together with other club officials and the technical staff, as we all contributed immensely to the rise of the club and its final elevation to the SAB League for the coming 2022 season,” Morajane said.
“It’s a great pleasure indeed to be back on the touchline where it all started for me when I was at Vultures FC, and later moved to Alex Parma before my last club, TDS FC. I have no intentions of moving back to the boardroom politics, it’s not for me anymore.”
Morajane added that his role at Rangers was that of club manager cum assistant coach, tasked with attending all LFA club meetings which included discussions on strategies on how best to handle the shortened Promotional League of the LFA.
“When I joined, Musa ‘Msheke’ Hlombe [now chairperson of the club] was the head coach. He was delighted with my arrival and we vowed to work closely on technical matters. We agreed that during playing time, he [Hlombe] will do the shouting of instructions to the players and I will only come in at the interval to share what I picked up.
“This arrangement worked well for us and today, here we are, the club is in the SAB League and hope to keep climbing the ladder of promotion up to the ultimate which is the prestigious Premier Soccer League.”
Morajane said as the three musketeers (Hlombe, David Horwitz and himself), they worked wonders together like a hand in glove. Horwitz is the former coach of the successful Maccabi FC which was bought by Swallows FC.
