Tributes to Ntate Sam Matsuenyane and boxing legend Dingane Thobela

Both men – although ages apart – will forever be remembered and credited, with each having contributed immensely to the growth and advancement of black lives in business and sports in the townships of Soweto.

Long before blacks qualified for financial loans from the banks, Motsuenyane and his consortium of local black businessmen started the Black Chain retail stores and launched the first black-owned bank, African Bank.

It is ironic and boggles the mind what black leaders under apartheid managed to achieve and do a lot with the little resources they had under the restrictive hardships of the system of governance at the time.

The Black Chain idea soon birthed the launch of the Black Chain retain store brands in Umlazi in KZN, in Diepkloof, Soweto in Joburg, Ga-Rankuwain in Pretoria, and plans for more stores in other areas around SA are in the pipeline.

And when the National Party government demanded a R1m fee from Black Chain to register the first ever black-owned financial institution, African Bank, it was Motsuenyane and his team of astute township businessmen and women who again bandied together and crowd-funded the project.

And so the African Bank was born.

When Black Chain launched a student magazine in Soweto called Black Chain Today, this writer felt honoured to have been its founding editor.

Matsuenyane will always be remembered as a gentle giant who stood on the shoulders of his people as he led them to self-development and self-sufficiency.

And with all the millions and zillions of rands currently tossed over the heads of the country’s poor, one wonders just how much more Matsuenyane and his team of visionaries would have done for the poor, the hungry, the unemployed and the homeless today.

Robala ka Kgotso Ntate Matsuenyane.

May your soul rest in eternal peace.

You have lived a fulfilled life.

Dingaan Thobela quit too soon.

There are those in the boxing fraternity who feel the former three-time world boxing champ Dingaan Thobela, who died on April 28, could at least have hung around a little longer and continued contributing his boxing knowledge to the youth and boxing enthusiasts for a few more years before throwing in the towel as he did last Sunday morning, April 28.

The general feeling is that, at the age of 57, the former SA welterweight boxing champion’s death has left a gaping vacuum in local professional boxing. To the thousands of his loyal fans, Thobela could have been anything he wanted through his contribution to local boxing.

For heaven’s sake, the guy remains the best township professional boxer ever produced by this country since Jake Ntuli. He then wins three world titles in three weight divisions to prove just how much talent he had between his ears.

Thobela should have been allocated some portfolio in either the department of sports and/or the SA Boxing Board as an official overseeing a job dealing with teens and even adults who want to take up boxing as a career.
Or whatever, just to keep him attached to the sport he loved so much.

To have confined him all by himself in a tiny flat with an ailment he does not understand nor can treat or cure, without doubt, absolutely nothing to help stimulate his mind over the matter that was troubling his mind.

Thobela was at his lowest when he was at his weakest, but there are those among his friends who will always remember him as a gallant fighter whose heroism was unleashed through his skills in the art of boxing.

Some continue to admire and acknowledge his boxing skills and prowess in the ring. Many of them continue to believe that the fragrance left by the ‘Rose of Soweto’ will always flow through the streets of the townships as a reminder of Thobela’s contribution to SA boxing.

May your soul rest in peace, Champ.