Robala Ka Kgotso Bra Stan.

Screamer may have wanted to beat me up, but I had a fond admiration for the man, the coach (made the legend).

I am not afraid to fuck up a journalist!  Bra Stan was not joking. And I knew it. After all, he had done it before.

I moved closer to him, 'tight-marking' him as we sat on the mini grandstand so as to ensure he had no room to throw a punch.

Fortunately, there were cameras – Spanish and German media - aplenty at the training ground and, because he had said those menacing words out loud, they all panned away from the pitch towards where the voice came from.

I did not get fucked up, phew. But it was a close shave alright - my second such with the man.

We were in Korea during the 2002 FIFA World Cup and colleague Carl Peters and I had co-written an article that all of SAFA did not take kindly to. 

Stanley Screamer Tshabalala, who died Thursday aged 75 after succumbing to injuries he sustained back in March when burglars shot him at his home, was tasked with putting us in our place.

Tshabalala was a member of coach Jomo Sono’s bloated technical team for the global soccer showpiece.  Bra J referred to them as “Special Projects’ and Screamer – along with Durban administrator Joe Nkosi and the late Soeetan journalist Sello Rabothata who was the Media Officer for Bafana Bafana – told us in no uncertain terms that they would not tolerate ‘any shit’ from us. 

Bra Stan was particularly focused on me, believing – as most administrators did back then – that whatever ‘negative articles’ I was writing was because I was ‘being used by the whites at The Star’.

Years later Bra Stan and I got on well and sometimes looked back on our ‘fights’ with laughter.

The one in Korea was not the first for he had threatened to beat me up during his time as a Technical Director at Kaizer Chiefs. 

A coach through and through, Bra Stan just could not stay away from the team even after being elevated to TD status. and thus had run-ins with Paul Dolezar.

The Yugoslav-born Frenchman told me once “Jacob, that man Screamer beat me up’ and a few players confirmed the incident. I wrote about it, albeit somewhat in passing as I had no concrete proof.

And then in one midweek match against Umtata Bucks at Ellis Park, the two had a clash when Bra San went to the dressing room during halftime and coached. 

The team was divided, with some players listening to the technical director and others to the coach. Chiefs duly lost that match and I got wind of what had transpired through Dolezar and goalkeeper Brian Baloyi. I reported on it.

Bra Stan was apparently counting my ‘misdemeanours’.

At Chiefs he sat on the bench during matches and in one against SuperSport United at the Rand Stadium he fought with Matsatsamtsa coach Shane MacGegor during halftime. 

The duo’s bad blood apparently dates to way back when Tshabalala was the Bafana Bafana coach and excluded the then-top striker from the national team.

Someone told me there was a fight and I rushed from the stands to the tunnel just before the second half kicked off to investigate. 

Bra Stan and Louis Tshakoane – then Chiefs PRO - had already made their way to the bench and after hearing from SuperSport, I did the journalistic thing and approached the Chiefs bench.

Bra Stan gave me a ‘don’t you dare’ look and voiced it out so there was no misunderstanding between us.

“Wa qala ne Matshelane. O batla ho ngwala masepa a o a ngwalang kanna akere? Ke tlo o shapa'. (Matshelane you are starting now. You want to write the shit you have been writing about me. I am going to beat you up.)

I naively protested, telling him “Bra Stan I just want your side of the story’. 

He got agitated and Tshakkoane warned me to leave before I got beaten up. I heeded the advice and left, but knew to rush down to the tunnel just before the final whistle. And as luck would have it I saw him and Shane slugging it out before they got separated by the clubs'  personnel.

"I will fuck you up Shane," Bra Stan shouted as he was being taken away, pointing a finger at his adversary who retorted with F words of his own I penned another article which the sub-editors toned down. Not so for a former colleague the late Coudjoe Amankwaa of the Citizen who incurred Bra Stan's wrath for daring to report on the fight.

Lest you start thinking Bra Stan was a fighter and not a coach, you’d be mistaken. Yes, he took no shit from anyone and was quick to throw that hook he learnt from his boxing days as a youngster. Just ask the Sy Lerman about it, the old master scribe having been floored for daring to tell Tshabalala to 'stop screaming' and leave the national team when Bafana were struggling to find their footing in international football. 

Those struggles with Bafana should not be allowed to take away from the fact Bra Stan was a great coach, a talent scout, a football fanatic and a fascinating man all round.

Prior to those threats, Bra Stan had given me my second-ever scoop as a journalist. He had spotted the Malawian defender Patrick Mabedi and signed him for Kaizer Chiefs.

Tshabalala had developed a good relationship with my senior Billy Cooper whom he had wanted to ‘fuck up’ along with Lerman as he felt the two whities were against him as Bafana coach. And upon signing Mabedi he called our office to give Billy the story but Scoops was not around and Screamer invited me to Taung Village in Naturena and told me to ‘bring a photographer’.

A young me got to write a back page lead for The Star on a major Chiefs signing thanks to Bra Stan and that helped put my name on the soccer journalism map.

I got to know him better when he was Bafana Bafana Team Manager during trips with the squad and I have vivid memories of evenings spent at many a hotel lobby listening to Bra Stan regaling us with funny tales from his vast football experiences.

It was somewhat surreal to know Bra Stan personally actually. For, after all, this was a man I’d grown up admiring – watching him on TV when he was coach of that great Mamelodi Sundowns of the late 1980s to early 1990s. I still have vivid memories of Screamer resplendent in the trademark green tracksuit pants and white golf shirt – his beard and hair so unkempt he would have passed for a madman as he cajoled his team to victories.

My job got me close to him. And I can still hear his voice as he called out my name ‘Matshelane’. Whether he was threatening to fuck me up or just greeting me at the stadium or answering my phone call, Z there was something endearing about how he called my name. 

I will sadly not hear that anymore, now that he has gone to join some of the players he worked with. 

O robale ka kgotso Bra Stan. Lala kahle Mshengu. 

Thank you for the beautiful memories. Thank you for your immense contribution to South African football.