The ‘Bra Tshidi’ I came to know
Kagiso Sekokonyane | Saturday July 6, 2024 09:58
When we were at secondary school, we would religiously listen to the match commentaries from the small portable radios. These were a treasure not everybody owned. Those that had the means e ne le barena. We would grovel after them as they had what we needed most. Television was out of our reach and those who had would come back when schools re-opened to tell us about what they saw on television, more especially about games between Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates, two of the famous South African teams. I remember when we were at Moeng College there was an established spot at the top of the hill where we would regularly go to listen to radio soccer commentaries. The place famously came to be known as Ellis Park. As for the local game, radio was the thing for us. We would hear the names of people we had never seen with our eyes.
These were the great players of yesteryear. Amongst those was the legendary Saxton Tshidi Kowa, a goalkeeper of note who plied his trade at Mochudi Centre Chiefs at the time. Last weekend, the sport fraternity was shattered by the news of the passing on of Kowa. ‘Bra Tshidi’, as he was affectionately known to many in football circles, had not been well for some time. Death visits us all the time but every time it happens, it hits us at the core of our hearts. It has not been different with the passing away of ‘Bra Tshidi’. My interactions with ‘Bra Tshidi’ came about in the early 1990s whilst a student at the University of Botswana and playing for Gaborone Kicks, a First Division team at the time. Kicks and Uniao Flamengo Desportos trained on adjacent grounds at Naledi Senior Secondary School. ‘Bra Tshidi’ was very particular about the name of his team. As most people are used to flamingos, they took it for granted that the name of his team was Flamingo. He was always quick to explain that the name is Flamengo, thus he would shorten it to ‘Mengo’. Thus, we saw ‘Bra Tshidi’ every day during training sessions. ‘Bra Tshidi’ had this loud voice and you could not miss it when he was grilling his boys let alone during match days. He had instilled a certain brand of football in his team and you would marvel at watching them play. The team’s play resembled the Barcelona tika-tika style. It was no surprise that because of his affinity for Argentina’s fair play, he adopted the colours of the Argentinian national team.
The boys also enjoyed ‘Bra Tshidi’s training methodology. You could feel the camaraderie among the Flamengo players. Although ‘Bra Tshidi' had trained as a coach in Germany, he preferred the Argentina style of play. Some of the players in that ‘great team’ that I recall well are Baggio, Gianini, Robo, Bia, Manelo, Giddie, Dunga, Tornado and George (Mogopodi) amongst others. Because we were in the same division, we had regular encounters with ‘Mengo’, as ‘Bra Tshidi’ fondly referred to his team. The games were never easy and ‘Bra Tshidi’ would be scolding his boys from the touchline if they were not executing his game plan. One game that comes to mind is the one where we were playing against them at the Naughty Boys ground in Tlokweng. This team that I played for was notorious for carrying around a two-litre bottle of Sta-soft to the games. Whenever a player was injured, the medic would run into the field with the (in)famous bottle. While the player will be attended, other rituals would be carried out with the help of the contents of the Sta-soft bottle. During this particular game, while conducting our usual rituals, one of ‘Bra Tshidi’s inquisitive players joined in the ritual. But because he wasn’t privy to the instructions, he deviated and in no time, he claimed that he could not see. An infuriated ‘Bra Tshidi’ scolded him for ‘interfering’ in other people’s business. That was the last kick of the ball for the player.
We gave them a hiding. ‘Mengo’ found it tough when playing in the then Super League. ‘Bra Tshidi’ led his forces by example. Even at that time he would still occasionally man the goalposts. I remember one of Flamengo’s last games in the Super League at the National Stadium, after being substituted and when it was now clear that the team was going down, he posted a lonely figure by one of the flag posts in front of the Grand Stand, reality settling in that his team’s life in the elite was coming to an end. The team has never been back to the elite league. It wasn’t surprising that ‘Bra Tshidi’ was never bothered about coming back to the big league. His main contribution has always been developing players, something that he has been doing until he breathed his last. Just recently Santos gained promotion to the Botswana Premier League. ‘Bra Tshidi’ was unlucky not to see the team fighting it out with the big boys. 'Bra Tshidi' has had an illustrious career in football.
He is a founding member of Mochudi Centre Chiefs, a team he played for and coached at the age of 21. He eventually left the team when the environment was not conducive for him. In one of the interviews he did in the local media, he summed up his ‘divorce’ from the team in 1984 as not very nice but painful. Because of his ingenuity in football, ‘Bra Tshidi’ played for the Zebras for some time. According to him, he was amongst a group of players who played the first Zebras FIFA official game in 1976, although it was a friendly. A lot can be said about this legend but in the end, he has finished his race. His race can only be summed up by 2 Timothy 4: 7: “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. From now on there is reserved for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will give me on that day, and not only to me but also to all who have longed for his appearing.” Fare thee well ‘Bra Tshidi’.