‘No crisis here,’ says Kwinika on Chiefs’ costly defensive blunders

Kaizer Chiefs’ prodigal son Zitha Kwinika has been a flicker of hope in the team’s last line of defence amid costly schoolboy errors that have dogged Amakhosi since the start of the season.

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This has supporters worried because in five league games, Chiefs have won two and lost three, and individual mistakes have given them sleepless nights.

But Kwinika, who grew up in the Chiefs development structures before going away after failing to break into the senior team, believes it is not a crisis. 

“It’s not a problem per se, it is just mistakes,” said Kwinika this week. “And football is a game of mistakes. We are probably making mistakes that can cost us games.

“But we are in the phase of building, we are learning, we are growing. We have spoken about it and we are trying to fix it. We will get better.” 

Kwinika spent the last few years at various teams, including Chippa United and Chiefs signed him from Stellenbosch FC, where he was captain at the end of last season.

“Moving away to other teams played a role in my growth. This (Chiefs) is a big brand and it is not easy to break into the team. 

“The time I was here Chiefs had the best defenders you could get in South Africa at the time, so it was a learning phase for me. And having gone away and come back, I hope it will show what I have learnt,” he explained. 

“Sometimes life takes us where we never expected. Luckily for me, my dad played football and understands the game. 

“He told me to take it as an opportunity to go and learn elsewhere, it would be good for me. And that was indeed really good for me.

“Before I had come here, I had only played in the Safa SAB leagues and then went straight to the first team here. 

“After leaving I went and played in the NFD, and that process helped me become a better player,” said Kwinika. 

Chiefs have AmaZulu FC up next and the Durban side have some of the best strikers in the DStv Premiership at the moment. 

And the thought of them coming up against Amakhosi whose defence has been their biggest let down is surely a worry. 

Kwinika, however, believes they are improving with each game and minimising the mistakes. He says they can contain AmaZulu’s front three of Gabadinho Mhango, Augustine Kwem and Bongi Ntuli.

“In the games we had conceded in before, we conceded within the first five minutes. But if you look at the last few games we tried to solve that. 

“That is an improvement and we will progress and get better with each game,” said Kwinika.