Komphela’s consoling message to grieving Sundowns players

In his touching address to Mamelodi Sundowns players, Steve Komphela has tasked the senior players to be role models and requested that everyone at the club maintains a certain level of sensitivity, as the team continues to mourn the untimely passing of Anele Ngcongca, who lost his life in car accident earlier this week.

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It was the first time that Downs players gathered for training after the news broke on Monday morning.

“We have to come out of this quickly, but while being sensitive because if we say ‘let’s forget and move on’, it is insensitive. We have got to be realistic, but one thing that we need to know is that after a huge setback, we need to take our lives back,” said Komphela.

“It has to happen without us making too much of an effort because if we make it an effort to come out of this, it is draining you. The only way to come out of this effortlessly is to support one another… be very sensitive and close to one another and we will come out of this.

“You shared rich moments with Anele, you know what you have experienced with him and you know the life he had. Let’s learn to face this circumstance, it is the reality, we cannot be in denial. Let us understand where we are at because we learn and when we are learning you are trying to understand, and the minute you understand, you start to accept,” Komphela told the squad.

Masandawana will play their first game since the passing of Ngcongca against Stellenbosch on Saturday, and Komphela has told his team to gather the strength to move on.

“Even at the level of the pain that you are going through, just know that you are going to come out of this. We just need to find a way to live and show a lot of strength, which is what Anele would have appreciated.

“As much as we could not control the untimely passing of Anele, but we can control your own responses to that, you can control how you start to feel about that. Understand that it takes time to heal, emotional scars are not easy to heal and the moment you accept that and understand that, you will come out of it,” he said.

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