Chairman, Kaizer Motaung announced last week the appointment of Bheki Shongwe as the

new Managing Director of the Club. Shongwe who has 30 years of corporate experience

working for different companies in different responsibilities, a self confessed Manchester

United fan outside the three clubs that are dear to him, an enthusiastic die hard

supporter of Kaizer Chiefs from early 70s took time from his busy schedule to speak to

Media Relations Officer, Luthando Zibeko for kaizerchiefs.com

First of all, thank you for your time, Mr. Shongwe. On Tuesday you had an

opportunity to address the players for the first time since your appointment. What was

your message to them?

Luthando, it was not an address, it was just a meet and greet session and I of course

expressed my satisfaction with the way they welcomed me by beating Ajax Cape Town. I have

of course watched them on many occasions from the grandstands but it was for the first

time to have a closer encounter with the players and the Technical Team in particular the

younger players who have not featured in our games yet this season.

I am very impressed with the youthfulness of the Club and I am convinced that we are on

the right track. Once again it was a pleasure to meet and shake hands not only with the

players but the Technical Team as well. (Remember I am still a supporter like all other

supporters) I have no doubt that the team is in good hands in Vladimir Vermezovic and the

rest of the Technical Team.

There are huge expectations on you to change things around both on and off the

field…

Luthando, It would be unfair of people to expect me to change things particularly on

the field of play because we have a capable and competent team of people who are looking

after the team.

The Chairman for one whom himself has played the game and guided the team for over

nearly 40 years is still an integral part of the tactical brains trust of the Technical

Team. We are really privileged to be in this situation.

I know the coach is relatively new to the club and the squad also has a number of young

players and I have got no doubt that it won’t be long that we begin to see and enjoy

the type football associated with Kaizer Chiefs.

Looking at the business side of the organisation, I have detected levels of energy,

enthusiasm and passion for the Club from all staff that I can say I am positive that

Kaizer Chiefs as an organization has a lot of good thing written in front of it. The

administration of the organization wants to ensure that they keep the dream alive of a

Kaizer Chiefs brand without equal. In golfing terms, I understand they say “You

should imagine the ball going inside the whole even before you hit your swing”. For

now, I know that for now we are doing right things we just need to get the timing right.

We are visualizing the ‘ball in the net” all the time. (to paraphrase from

golfers)

I understand that you have also played football in your youth…

Yes Luthando! I played football for number of years and retired in 1986. During our

time, football was played for love and to impress girls than for money and wealth

(laughing).

I started playing football like all the kids in rural areas we would take any old cloth

wrap, tighten it up and find a space to play. We would of course used to get into trouble

for prioritizing football ahead of making sure that the cattle graze in greener pastures,

as parents would have instructed us.

I started my professional playing career started with Manzini Wanderers F.C. , a team I

still love and support to this day. It is the same club that William Shongwe played for

before joining Kaizer Chiefs. In fact William and I played in the same team. In 1983 I had

an opportunity to live and study in Australia where I completed my MBA in Strategy and

Finance. Thereto I found myself playing for the University of Adelaide and in the league

for a team called Tube Makers F.C.

I also had a playing stint in Botswana when I studied there where I played for Gaborone

United F.C. between 1976 and 1978. Zero “My Hero” Johnson a founder member of

the Kaizer XI and later Kaizer Chiefs was our Coach. I learnt a lot of football from

“ZZ” as we used to call him those days and I was very fond of him as a brother

figure even outside the game.

You say for your studies have always been a priority for you…

Luthando, The culture of studying was instilled in me at a very young age by my

grandmother. I was never convinced that I would make a career out of playing football. I

knew that there was lot of things that could happen to a player like injuries, loss of

form, and so on. It is therefore all the studying that I had to do that has helped my

career to date. On your arrival you spoke passionately about the Supporters Club…

Yes of course Luthando, I have been associated with leadership at supporters’ club

level from a very young age. After retiring in 1986 I was elected as Chairperson of the

Supporters Club of Manzini Wanderers. I have always believed that a good supporters club

network underpins a good football brand. It is for this reason therefore I look forward

interacting with all our supporters’ branches to workshop ideas with them on how we

can strengthen the brand. We need to also think about how supporters club network can

assume a pivotal role in community development and poverty alleviation. I know that the

club has done a lot on this but I am convinced there is a lot of ground to be covered

still.

How and when did you make connection a with Kaizer Chiefs?

I have been a supporter of Kaizer Chiefs since 1973! The hippie life style (, Afros,

bell-bottoms) of the 70s and love of all things good was the reason I chose Kaizer Chiefs

as the club to support. It also connected with my own value system as a young person at

that time.

I am convinced, as I was then that I made the right choice for life. Chiefs was about

style and breath of fresh air in South African football and continues to be a torch bearer

in this regard.

So you are a product of the brand?

Yes indeed Sir! The Kaizer Chiefs brand was only three years old when I started

following the Club. I have grown with this brand and I continue to grow with it. I feel

privileged that I have been asked to contribute at this level of responsibility. I know in

my heart that I want to give the best I can, because for Kaizer Chiefs success is not

everything but the only thing!

A new chapter opened for you in 1999. Tell us about that…

In 1999 Primedia Ltd bought an equity interest in Kaizer Chiefs and as a Group Strategy

Director at Primedia at that time and having been very involved with the acquisition

process I was appointed to represent Primedia at the Club’s Board. I was to stay on

as a Director even after my resignation as an employee at Primedia at the request of Mr.

William Kirsh and Mr. Motaung. . I want to thank Mr. Kirsh and Mr. Motaung for affording

me an opportunity to serve in the Board. I have learnt and grown a lot in football

administration terms since then.

It was in August (2009) that I had a lunch with Mr. Motaung where he rearticulated his

vision and mission for the Club pointing out that the time had come for him to share the

burden of running the Club with people who had the love for the Club. He told me he wanted

to separate the role of Executive Chairman and Managing Director a post which he had held

for more than two decades and that for the latter he needed to find somebody who

understood football in the country, Kaizer Chiefs as a club, appreciated the role played

by the Motaung Family in developing the Club for almost 40 years. As I was about to

suggest I could help him to find a candidate, he immediately said, “for that role I

thought you’d be best suited”. This punched the air out of my ‘sail’.

I feel supremely privileged and honoured that Mr. Motaung and the other shareholders

have found me worthy of this task. The Chairman, Mr. Motaung is the giant of South African

and continental football and I will be standing on his shoulders to see far as we take

this brand beyond 40.

What do you see as your immediate challenge?

Luthando, I see as my immediate challenge the identification together with the

Chairman of the opportunities for consolidation and growth of the brand in the rest of the

continent and internationally. I do believe we need to identify new revenue opportunities

for the Club to ensure its sustainability through continuous acquisition and development

of both playing and administrative talent.

So what do you do on your spare time?

I do not think I am going to get much spare time now as I have a 24/7 job (smiling). I

also serve on various Boards and I will be working to make sure that I still have time for

my family. I am a very proud and committed family person and God has been good to have

blessed me with a wonderful family. Should there be a bit of spare time left I want to

continue playing a bit of squash, walk and exercise and I want to learn how to play golf

as I am told it will help me in terms of discipline, mental strength and imagination.

You also come across as an ardent reader…

Luthando, I am a selective reader, a boring technoreader! I read mostly leadership,

organizational change, strategy and finance books. In between all of that I do take a huge

doze of music. I love and collect Jazz and Classical music but I love music in general

Mr. Bheki Shongwe thanks once again for your time, what will be your closing

remarks…

Luthando, I believe and I know that God has been good to me. I have had a life that has

been enriched and continues to be enriched by many people of all walks of life, supreme in

that has been my wife that I have known for the past 26 years. I thank her for growing me

up, to be the man I am today. I believe this is her hard work that has produced in me a

man, a leader, common servant and that is manifesting itself in appointments of honour

like the one I have received from Mr. Motaung.