In fact, some of us followed founder, Kaizer Motaung when he returned from the US to found Kaizers XI because being a left-footer myself, I identified with him as my hero whilst he played for Orlando Pirates before moving to the States.
We grew up during an era, whereby, we were solely dependent on Radio Zulu where the likes of sports commentators of the time, Thetha Masombuka and Koos Radebe were masters at their game of bringing enlivening the game to an extent that we were always glued close to the radio and receiving a minute by minute account of the game that was so entertaining that we really felt as if we were right at the stadium.
There was real excitement and the supporters’fights at the end of each derby game, far as we were, but we would really get into serious fights with our counterparts, at times claiming we were robbed and many other accusations levelled at the winning team.
All this happened because our PM10 batteries were fully charged for the game at hand. we never wasted its power by listening to match build-up commentaries, but straight into the game to last the entire 90 minutes.
In our group of friends, you know we grew up under strict family rules as our radios operated on those batteries, not electricity. It was uncommon for us to just switch on the radio at any time, but we gathered every evening as a family to listen to a Radio Zulu drama at 19.45 on weekdays and the batteries would be left on top of the house roof to recharge on the sun the whole day – if at some point it rained during the day whilst at school or at work, the batteries would be damaged for good and a new one was needed.
The same thing would happen if a derby game on a Saturday would turn out to be a rainy one or overcast, we would be frustrated if at 15.00 when the game kick-off until 17.00 our batteries would still be charged – we would at times miss a better part of the last half because our batteries had lost power, in that instance, we would move around the vicinity of our township where others would be gathered listening to the game.
Reflecting on tomorrow’s game, I will be watching it in the comfort of my lounge on Dstv channel 204, of course with no glitches expected. I’m still a staunch follower of Kaizer Chiefs and my prediction of the outcome is a 2-0 drubbing of Orlando Pirates because what matters now, is the three points at stake to close the lead margin of Mamelodi Sundowns at the top of the log.
