Former Pirates striker Mkhize – alcohol destroyed my life

In the conversation about what is stifling the success South African football, alcohol abuse among players is often referenced, but perhaps not always with the seriousness that it should be.

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Phumlani Mkhize, the former striker for African Wanderers, Orlando Pirates and Kaizer Chiefs, is living proof of what drinking can do to a player’s career. Mkhize has been left penniless and homeless, even begging for money on the streets of his hometown Estcourt in KwaZulu Natal.

The man who formed part of a deadly strike force at Wanderers, alongside Sibusiso Zuma and Siyabonga Nomvethe, before going on to Pirates and Chiefs, even contemplated suicide after losing all his money, his wife and his family to the bottle.

Mkhize, now 49, has begun to turn his life around, coaching Under-15 and Under-17 teams in his local area, and looking in good shape himself as he spoke at Diageo’s Wrong Side of the Road Campaign, aimed at creating awareness around the dangers of drink-driving.

Former Kaizer Chiefs star Junior Khanye, also at the event in Soweto, talked of having 15 accidents, drunk at the wheel of his car, somehow coming out alive, his playing career cut short, though Khanye has subsequently turned his own life around as a pundit with iDiski TV.

Mkhize had similar brushes with death at the wheel, so much so that at one point after waking up from a coma in hospital, he thought he had met his maker.

“Today I have nothing. Not one car, not a wife, not a house to sleep in,” said Mkhize.

“I must say alcohol destroyed my life, my career, everything. If I had managed to look after myself at that time when I was playing, I wouldn’t be in this situation right now.

“Junior said he had 15 accidents, I had four. The last one cut me right in the skull. When I woke up after three days in coma, only one person was in front of me, a nurse in a white dress. I thought an angel had come to take me!”

Mkhize has at least retained a sense of humour, even though at one point he locked himself in a room, with a gun, intent on taking his own life.

Before that, a gunshot basically ended Mkhize’s career. In 2003, while at Kaizer Chiefs he accidentally shot himself in the leg with his own gun, and never really recovered.

“When things started heating up, after I lost my career after the gunshot at Chiefs, when I went back home, when people looked at me, they thought it was all over (for me). I remember one time, I locked myself in my room. I took my gun, I put it in front of me. I said ‘because cars cannot end my life, I am going to end my life myself’.

“Right them something came across my mind, there were people who needed me that I have forgotten. I have kids, something came into my mind, to say ‘people need you’.

“I opened up my house, I had not money, I started to stand on the streets asking for a lift to town, asking if anyone had two Rand. Football is in my heart, after that … I had to start afresh, to tell the truth to people, especially these young boys.”

Mkhize is referring to Under-15 and Under-17 teams he now coaches in Estcourt.

“Those guys are keeping me busy,” he adds.

“As you can see from this body! The day I decided to go on the field to help them, it wasn’t for me any more, it was for them.”

And his advice for players today, with alcohol abuse and driving under the influence still a more-than serious problem, not just in football but in society in general?

“Now players are earning enough money to buy a car that can fly from here to wherever. They can afford it but who is telling them, ‘don’t go for that, go for something you will be able to use.’ This thing of alcohol, once you put alcohol in your system and driving, something is happening when you are not in control of yourself. You cannot … control the car any more.”