Born in Warrenton in the Northern Cape, James Mothibi
started his career at African Wanderers in the 2001/02 season and made his
debut in the professional ranks against Kaizer Chiefs at Absa Stadium in
Durban.
He went on to have a stint with Orlando Pirates and later
played for Maritzburg United and Mpumalanga Black Aces. The former
blonde-haired striker jokingly says he has not yet retired, but that perhaps he
should as he is being interviewed for Still in Touch.
Hola, James! Let’s relive the old days and talk about
your time at Orlando Pirates, whom you joined from African Wanderers and where
you spent a couple of seasons.
I had a good time there. I was mostly sharing a room with
Jimmy Kauleza or the late Gift Leremi. Jimmy was very quiet and naughty. He
kept to himself most of the time. The character was Gift, who was my buddy in
the team. He was a very good person as well. I remember one time we were in
Malawi to play Bakili Bullets. We lost 1-0 and we went to the airport to catch
a flight back. While there, Gift, Sibusiso Mazibuko and I were in conversation.
They called us over to hand out our passports and flight tickets. Without being
noticed Gift stole Sibusiso’s passport and ticket, ha, ha, ha. Everyone started
boarding the plane but Sibusiso was left behind because he couldn’t find his
passport and tickets! Gift and I kept on asking Sibusiso, “Hey, Sbu, u grand
ntwana? Thina siyahamba ntwana (Are you alright boy? We are leaving).” We had
told Tebogo Moloi, the assistant coach, about what Gift had done and he then
went up to Sibusiso and told him, “Sbuda, we’ll talk to Irvin (Khoza) to
organise you a place to sleep tonight but you’ll only be able to come back
tomorrow.” Ha, ha, ha, that guy was frustrated, mfethu. We could see he was
about to cry and that’s when Gift gave him his things. We had a good laugh
about it in the plane. That was Gift for you!
Ha, ha, ha. He sounds like he was a very naughty guy.
The one day we were playing Moroka Swallows at
Johannesburg Stadium. Kosta Papic liked me because of my work-rate and I was
always in the starting line-up. On that day, when I went to fetch my playing
kit, I found that someone had taken my right boot. I was just standing there
wearing only one boot, ha, ha. The coach and match officials were panicking
because the game was about to start... only to find out just before the game
that it was Gift who had done it.
Were there any other characters in the team?
We had so many of them, like Williams Okpara. A lot of
the guys liked to have a chiskop and whenever Okpara greeted you, he would bite
you on your head and then say, “In Nigeria we eat people.” There was also Abednego
Netshiozwi, Lucky Lekgwathi and Thapelo Liau. I remember one day we lost to
SuperSport United 4-3, after having taken a 3-0 lead. On the Monday after the
game, we had a post-mortem of the match and the likes of Phil Setshedi and
Zodwa Khoza were there. Phil asked what our problem was. The guys started
speaking about what they thought the problem had been. Then came Jimmy’s turn.
He stood up and said, “Hayi (No), mina Bra Phil, ngicela i clearance yami(I’m
asking for my clearance).” Ha, ha, ha. The guys were asking him, “We win
together and we lose together, so where are you going?” It was a big topic in
the team and we started calling him ‘Clearance’.
You know how Augusto Palacios speaks broken English… The
one day Thapelo spoke Sotho in a team talk. Palacios said, “Thapelo, I can’t
hear you man. What are you saying now?” Thapelo responded, in Sotho, “If you
can’t hear me, it’s your problem. People will tell you what I’m saying. I’m
going to speak my language.” That was another funny one!
Go on. Tell us more...
Steve Lekoelea was naughty. I recall this one time we
went to play against Black Leopards and, as you know, as Africans we believe in
muti. We did a sauna before the game and went in, in groups of eight. Now,
there was a hot iron that was put in there once we were all inside the sauna.
They took the iron straight from the stove... it was really hot. We didn’t go
in wearing any clothes obviously, ha, ha, ha. The muti man didn’t put the iron
in properly and it fell in the hot water causing the water to spray. Eish, you
should have been there. The guys started running away and threw the blanket
away. Steve ended up making a joke about it and said, “Imagine if nine of us
had been burnt... The newspapers would say Orlando Pirates couldn’t play
against Black Leopards because nine of their players were burnt.” Ha, ha, ha!
He was a character. Those were fun times. It was an unforgettable period of my
career.
TAVERN TALK FUN FACTS:
Best player I’ve ever faced: Mbulelo Mabizela
Best player I’ve played with: Welcome Mazibuko
Biggest pay cheque: R10 000
Smallest pay cheque: R1 500
Former team that used the most muti: Orlando Pirates
Favourite current player: Oupa Manyisa
Current occupation: Coaching Pitch United in the Northern
Cape
Former teams: African Wanderers, Orlando Pirates,
Maritzburg United, Mpumalanga Black Aces, City Pillars, United FC
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