Sports personalities stole the headlines in 2014. Sameer Naik looks at the triumphs and tragedies of the past year.
Senzo Meyiwa
– October
Soccer fans in South Africa were left stunned when news filtered through that Bafana Bafana and Orlando Pirates captain and goalkeeper Senzo Meyiwa had been shot dead.
The 27-year-old was gunned down on October 26 while visiting girlfriend Kelly Khumalo at her mother’s house in Vosloorus. He was declared dead on arrival at hospital.
While police said the motive behind the attack was unclear, they confirmed there were seven people inside the house, including Meyiwa, when two suspects entered and another remained outside.
Police believe there was an altercation and Meyiwa was shot. The three suspects fled on foot after the shooting.
The talented keeper joined Orlando Pirates at the age of 13, and was promoted to the senior team in July 2005.
With nine years of Premier Soccer League experience under his belt, Meyiwa made more than 150 appearances for the Buccaneers, his last, in Pirates’ 4-1 Telkom Knockout quarter-final win over Ajax Cape Town in Soweto.
Meyiwa was one of only a handful of players who had represented the country at all age-group levels – under-17, under-22, under-23 and the senior national team.
The shot-stopper, although already a household name by the start of the 2013/14 season, rose to prominence last year during Pirates’ Caf Champions League campaign.
Meyiwa saved two penalties in April last year against four-time African champions TP Mazembe, and helped Pirates become the first South African club to qualify for an African continental club competition’s group stage in seven years.
Oscar Pistorius
– October
After a seven-month long trial, former Paralympian Oscar Pistorius was finally sentenced to five years in prison for culpabble homicide.
Appearing in court on October 21, the former Paralympian stood as Judge Thokozile Masipa said: “Count one, culpable homicide, the sentence imposed is five years.”
He was led to the courthouse cells and later to an armoured police van that would take him to Kgosi Mampuru II prison in Pretoria.
The 27-year-old was also given a three-year suspended sentence on a separate gun charge, which will be served alongside his sentence for culpable homicide.
Pistorius killed his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp, 29, in the early hours of Valentine’s Day in 2013 when he shot her through the bathroom door at his home in Pretoria. He insisted he thought he was firing at an intruder.
Hashim Amla
– June
Star batsman Hashim Amla made history in June when he became the first black cricketer to be named the captain of the Proteas Test side. Though Ashwell Prince captained the Proteas Test side in 2006, Amla is the first black cricketer to hold the post permanently.
Amla took over from Graeme Smith, who retired earlier this year after a world-record 109 matches in charge.
Highly respected throughout the cricket world, not only for his excellence as a batsman, but also for his calm demeanour, Amla becomes the fifth (permanent) South African Test cricket captain since the country returned to international cricket in 1992.
He follows in the footsteps of Kepler Wessels, Hansie Cronjé, Shaun Pollock and Smith. Besides Prince, Mark Boucher and Jacques Kallis also served as stand-in captains during that time.
Amla previously captained the South African under-19 team and the KwaZulu-Natal provincial side, the Dolphins.
The 31-year-old has scored 6 214 Test runs at an average of 51.35, with 21 centuries and 27 fifties. He is the South African record holder for the highest score in a Test innings of 311 against England in the first Test at the Oval in Kennington, London, in July 2012.
His first series in charge was against Sri Lanka in July, when he led the Proteas to a historic Test series win in Sri Lanka.
AB de Villiers
– November
South Africa’s One-Day International (ODI) captain AB de Villiers capped off a memorable year after being named ODI Cricketer of the Year, by the International Cricket Council (ICC). The Proteas captured the ICC Test Team of the Year award.
Aside from being named the ICC’s ODI Cricketer of the Year, De Villiers also became the fastest player to score 7 000 ODI runs.
Shakes Mashaba
– July
There were more than 20 world-class soccer managers interested in the Bafana Bafana post, but local coach Ephraim “Shakes” Mashaba got the nod as the new Bafana Bafana coach in July.
Mashaba took over from Gordon Igesund, more than 20 years after he first took charge of the South African national football team.
Mashaba was previously caretaker coach for one match in October 1992, the same year that South Africa was accepted back into the international fold. He later took over as Bafana’s full-time coach in August 2002. Mashaba, 63, has been impressive, guiding Bafana Bafana to qualification in the Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon).
Portia Modise
– November
Banyana Banyana striker Portia Modise was named the 2014 South Africa Sports Star of the Year at the South African Sports Awards.
Modise also became the first African player to reach the elusive 100-goal mark in international football. Modise beat the biggest names of South African sport to win the big-money SA Sports Star of the Year award. Her rivals included swimmer Chad le Clos, cricketer AB de Villiers, Springbok eighthman Duane Vermeulen, rejuvenated athlete Khotso Mokoena and Boston Marathon king Ernst van Dyk.
Chad le Clos
– November
South African Olympic gold medallist Chad le Clos was named the overall men’s winner of the Swimming World Cup series for the third time in four years. He also became the first person to win all his races in all seven legs of the series.
The 22-year-old topped the men’s overall standings with 474 points, ahead of Hungary’s Daniel Gyurta. The Durban swimmer also made history on the night of the Fina World Short-Course Championships in Doha, Qatar, when he became the first swimmer to win the 50m, 100m and 200m butterfly events.
His victory in his specialist event brought his total tally to four gold medals, the biggest medal haul by an individual South African swimmer at the global showpiece.
He surpassed the three gold medals swimming legend Ryk Neethling won at the 2006 edition in Shanghai.
Phindile Mwelase
– October
Pro female boxer Phindile Mwelase became the first female fighter in South Africa to die as a result of a knockout blow in the ring.
The 31-year-old boxer was knocked out in the sixth round by Liz Butler in a professional women’s bout. She was rushed to hospital where she lay in a coma for over two weeks. She was taken off life support and moved out of intensive care, but never regained consciousness.
Mwelase, who had failed to win any of her four previous bouts, had been competitive until she was caught by a single right-hand blow, which caused her to slump to her knees. She then toppled forward, unconscious.
Boxing SA Gauteng manager Archie Nyingwa described Mwelase as a soldier who died with her gun in her hands.
Mwelase, from Ladysmith, was trained in Joburg by Stanley Ndlovu.
Mbulaeni Mulaudzi
– October
South Africa lost another of its sports heroes when former world 800m champion and Olympic silver medallist Mbulaeni Mulaudzi died in a car accident.
The 34-year-old retired athlete was killed when his car overturned on a curve on the R555 in Mpumalanga. Details of the accident suggested he lost control of his vehicle while heading to an Athletics South Africa meeting in Joburg.
Mulaudzi, who carried the South African flag in the opening ceremony at the Athens Olympic Games in 2004, won his silver medal at the same Games, having picked up a Commonwealth gold in Manchester two years earlier.
He was ranked the top 800m runner in the world in 2006 and, after overcoming a succession of injuries, won the 2009 world championship title in Berlin.
Born in the village of Muduluni in Limpopo, Mulaudzi became the first black South African athlete to be ranked number one in the world.
Along with Bevil Rudd (1920), Hezekiel Sepeng (1996, 1999) and Johan Botha (1999, 2001), Mulaudzi was one of only four South African men who have won an 800m medal at a global championship.
Jacques Kallis
– July
Labelled as one of the greatest cricketers of all time, Proteas all-rounder Jacques Kallis announced his retirement from all formats of the game in July this year.
He had previously retired from Test cricket after the series against India in December 2013.
Kallis played 166 Tests, 328 ODIs and 25 T20 internationals in a career spanning 19 years. The all-rounder scored 13 289 Test runs and another 11 579 in ODIs and 666 in T20 internationals respectively.
Haroon Lorgat, the chief executive of CSA, was quick to praise the impact Kallis had on the sport. “South Africa has been blessed with one of the world’s greatest cricketing talents in Jacques Kallis,” he said.
“He is undeniably one of the greatest players ever to have graced our wonderful game and the Proteas’ standard-bearer of excellence for nearly two decades. He has played a huge part in making cricket a truly national sport of winners and contributed to the important process of nation-building.” - Saturday Star