Tribute to Jabu Khumalo

Khumalo helped breathe life into eastern Free State football

Last week The Weekly published an article where the PSL chairman, Irvin Khoza, and SAFA president, Kirsten Nematandani, paid tribute to renowned Free State football servant, Jabu Khumalo. They described Khumalo as committed football loyalist, who loved engaging robustly in football issues.

To add to their significant accounts of the man, I sought a more in-depth account of this person who I knew as Malome (uncle) Jabu. I needed a raw account of him to be told by someone who knew him for a number of decades and I couldn’t look any further than my own father, Seabata Sekharume.

My encounters with the deceased were indeed based on family ties, as the term ‘uncle’ suggests, but I knew him more through his involvement in football alongside my father. The two established their long-standing friendship in high school through football. They later worked together, amongst other individuals, in the management of yesteryear club, Maholosiane FC.

Maholosiane was a community club that was based in QwaQwa and was a formidable force in that region, especially during the 1980’s.

In the late 1980’s, Khumalo left Maholosiane to become a public relations officer (PRO) for Fairways Stars (now Free State Stars), just before the club was sold to a prominent local supermarket owner. My father was the PRO for what had now become Ratanang Maholosiane in alignment to the club’s new ownership.

All of this transpired during my inquisitive puerile years and I subsequently found it quite bizarre that my father and Malome Jabu were the respective PRO’s of the only two biggest rival clubs I knew at the time. This came with heated on-air taunts on Radio Sesotho, which is now Lesedi FM, before every QwaQwa derby.

It came across to me as a grave feud, as my immature thinking dictated, but the two seemed to always bury the hatchet soon after the matches.

“Jabu was a fair and a very intelligent person, who was quite frank about issues or problems. If he didn’t like something, he would bluntly tell you,” narrated my father during our midweek conversation, which turned into an impromptu “interview” and thus the subject matter of this column.

“He was also helpful. Whenever I had problems, I would approach Jabu because he was a good problem-solver. He was a born leader and he has loved football ever since we were in high school. He was very good at debating as well,” he added.

I was interested in the character of this popular football stalwart that I passively knew as the uncle who had a keen interest in football, much like my own father and some of my other uncles who played for Maholosiane during those years.

Circumstances never allowed me to get to know the deceased better, especially during the period leading up to my teenage years. But as the public figure that he became, I closely followed his advancements in the football circles and got immensely inspired.

Last weekend, every single fixture in the PSL observed a moment of silence in memory of this legend of the game. This indisputably affirmed his stature in South African football.

My condolences go out to the Khumalo family, particularly to my cousin’s who knew this football behemoth as a father.

As a Free State patriot and an ardent football supporter, I want to thank Malome Jabu for his contribution to football development in the province; the eastern Free State in particular. He has travelled his journey and left a lasting legacy behind. May his soul rest in peace.