Orlando Pirates and Bethuel Mokgosinyana
A 1m x 1.3m wide oil painting on metal, framed by shatterproof glass that has been sandblasted with the Orlando Pirates FC emblem. The artwork is attached to the street facing wall of the Mokgosinyana's home.
The story had begun two years earlier, in 1937, with the formation of the Orlando Boys Club – one of a network of boys and girls recreational clubs established on the Reef in the 1930s.
Said Sam ‘Baboon Shepard’ Shabangu, one of Pirates’ original team players: “We had everything [at the club] except football, so we thought … why don’t we have a football team?”
Without boots or kit, the Orlando Boys’ Club team started to play, under the enthusiastic guidance of the team’s first coach Pele Pele Mkhwanazi.
In 1939, Mkhwanazi tied his team’s fortunes to Bethuel Mokgosinyana, a relatively affluent factory foreman, self-styled social worker and devout Christian, who became the team’s first president.
Mokgosinyana donated his former team's kit, black jerseys and white shorts, to the Pirates, making black and white the official team colours. The first kit featured a large “P” emblazoned on the chest (Mokgosinyana’s previous team was called Puur Vuur).
The name ‘Pirates’ was suggested by the goalie, Reggie ‘Hasie’ Nkosi after a popular action movie.
The story of how Bethuel Mokgosinyana launched one of South Africa’s most famous and formidable soccer teams is a story that helped to shape the popular culture of our country in the past 100 years.
Mokgosinyana campaigned his whole life to link the club and the township in which it was started, transforming Pirates into a symbol of Orlando.
Mokgosinyana, who said he would have been a priest if not for football, began and ended Wednesday evening team meetings at his Orlando East home with a prayer.
The Pirates slept at Mokgosinyana's house the night before a game. According to players, a secret ritual took place in the backyard shack. Mokgosinyana would take a burning coal and put it on the ground and place a fatty substance on the coal. This would make lots of smoke and when he struck a match and put it on the coal, the smoke would vanish.
All the way to their matches they would not speak to anyone on the train, only nodding their heads if someone spoke to them.
Many Orlando residents supported the Pirates because they believed that football was an excellent way to develop self-respect and civic mindedness among the youth — a healthy alternative to them joining the tsotsis.
Inscription
In this house in 1939, an eager band of schoolboys was transformed into one of South Africa’s most formidable soccer teams, Orlando Pirates. This was the home and headquarters of the team’s first president, Bethuel Mokgosinyana, who turned the boys into professionals. He gave Pirates their ‘colours’, the black and white kit they wear today. Every Wednesday for 10 years, the boys gathered to discuss game strategy; Mokgosinyana always opened and closed these marathon sessions with a prayer. On Fridays before matches the chosen team ‘camped’ here all night.
Submitted pictures
At Flickr
