Mngqithi furious with WC province for denying Anele a provincial funeral

“I am very unhappy but I guess I am nobody to be very unhappy because if the leadership of Western Cape were honest, trustworthy and humane, they would have seen the need to honour and respect the life of Anele.”

“You knew that you have never played any role in Anele’s success. You have deprived the black people of Western Cape an opportunity to celebrate the son of the soil. I wonder if it was a different race…”

Those are the words of Mamelodi Sundowns co-head coach Manqoba Mngqithi, speaking at the funeral of Anele Ngcongca held on Thursday in Gugulethu, where he was born.

In a wide-ranging and moving tribute, streamed live on ENCA, Mngqithi is of the view that Ngcongca, who lost his life in a car accident last month, deserved to be honoured with an official provincial funeral for being an ambassador of the Western Cape in Belgium where he played for Racing Genk for about a decade. By the time of his passing, Ngcongca was on the books of AmaZulu, who had loaned him from Sundowns.

“I have seen people getting provincial funerals that I believe were not even worthy of them but when I saw a boy who left this province (Western Cape) and went to shine the flag of Western Cape and represented you with pride, dignity and honour, he never failed you. Everywhere when they talk about Anele they speak of him as someone who has done Western Cape proud,” said Mngqithi.

“The accolades and the achievements that Anele got, let alone the number of games he played for the senior national team, I believe you have deprived the black people an opportunity to see a real role model, an opportunity to celebrate one of the best exports from this country. You may not like it, but whatever he achieved should be a clear signal to all of us that this has to be celebrated and if the government of the province does not see the need to celebrate Anele’s life, who else will see that,” he added.

The Masandawana mentor says a provincial funeral would have served as an inspiration for the youngsters who’d in turn, at least according to Mngqithi, model their lives to that of Ngcongca.

“We are fighting very hard to give our children a proper pathway so that our kids will know that if I want to be successful in life, I must be humble and selfless just like Anele and I must still be humane, but these kids never got the opportunity. It is only a few who are here (at the funeral) who can see how we are celebrating this diamond that came in a very small package.”

For more news your way, download The Citizen’s app for iOS and Android.