A legend of soccer

Scandal – less! That is how Premier Soccer League and Orlando Pirates chairman Dr Irvin Khoza aptly described the late Dr Leepile Taunyane.

“He was never corrupted by the spoils of office,” said Khoza. Taunyane, who was the life president of the league and Alexandra Football Association until his untimely death, has left an indelible mark in the lives of so many people, both academically and in the football fraternity. He headed the league’s corporate social investment arm.

Taunyane was my high school principal until he was transferred to Katlehong High in the late 70s. He was a symbol of academia, and at the same time excelled at administering football at amateur and professional levels.

When the ‘perm’, the newly introduced oily hair style became fashionable at school, Taunyane, during his tenure at Katlehong High was to have none of it. Only his esteemed ‘dream team’ of teachers understood his reasoning.

When tabloids and newspapers reported on his stance, he refused to give interviews. He stood his ground. Much later, when I as a member of the fourth estate asked him in the corridors of football about this he was not charmed by my question. With his humility but stern and soft voice he said, “A school is a school and not a pedestal for fashion, glitz and glamour.”

When Khoza paid tribute to Taunyane on a national radio station recently, one could hear his voice trembling. On various television interviews you could see Khoza was hurting as his eyes were red from sobbing, or so I suspected. And this is the man they call the ‘Iron Duke’ of South African football.

In years gone by when colleague Fikile Lengwati and I were travelling with Taunyane from a football function he said, “Individuals must not allow their profiles and egos to be built by newspapers because if they do they will destroy them later.”