Thosw who know Shakes Mashaba well, aren’t surprised by the latest outburst from the national team coach.
One man who grew up admiring Mshege tells a story of how a young Shakes once gave a referee a long telling off in a match between Orlando Preston Brothers and Pimville United Brothers - Mashaba, having felt provoked by the whistleman, who appeared to have it in for him.
“He took no nonsense from anyone,” the source said. “He was the don’t provoke me and I won’t provoke you' type. But goad him and you had it coming.”
It is debatable as to whether he was goaded into losing his cool the way he did at the weekend in Polokwane.
But that he became a dead-man-walking since his failure to lead Bafana Bafana to qualifying for next year’s Africa Cup of Nations, is common knowledge.
He, on the other hand, clearly didn’t see things that way - the one-time gentleman of South African coaches convinced his job would only be in danger if he failed to achieve both his mandates of taking South Africa to the continental showpiece and the 2018 World Cup in Russia.
And when the media pointed out the obvious - that he was in line to swell the ranks of the unemployed - Bra Shakes saw it as a personal attack.
He swiftly morphed into a man unrecognisable from the gentleman who used to host media for lunches with his national Under-20 and Under-23 squads. The man many backed for a third spell in the senior job when it was clear some in the association and media were looking for a big name European or South American coach, suddenly saw journalists as his enemies and his press conferences became stages for ugly tirades directed at the media.
No doubt his employers watched with disgust as their coach brought the Bafana brand into disrepute and wondered how to put him in line. A sit-down with a few senior journalists to iron out issues actually took place earlier this year and those in attendance left feeling things would only get better.
And for a while they did, so much so that when he took Bafana to Polokwane last week, most were rooting for him. The victory over Senegal should have been celebrated by all and sundry.
Mashaba and diplomacy, however, have always been like the parallel lines of the railway - destined never to meet.
Instead of letting the result shut his detractors up, he needed to tell them to their faces. It could have gotten worse had the SABC’s Kwena Moabelo not stopped him from going on air in his enraged state.
We could have had a situation similar to that one back in 1999 at Vosloorus Stadium when, after securing qualification for the Olympics, Bra Shakes went on a rant against Safa saying: “I hate them, I hate them all”. This after the association had denied him the use of some key players for a prior qualifier against Cameroon.
Still, Bra Shakes acted in a manner that lead to his employers to suspending him pending a disciplinary hearing.
They were always out to get him, were Safa, and in winning on Saturday, Bra Shakes had kept the wolves away from the door. If only he could have just shut his mouth. But it wouldn’t be the real Mshege to let sleeping dogs lie, would it?
A pity it might come at a high cost.
The Star