Sports Sermon
Opinion
What might Ewert Nene, the late businessman and founder-member of Kaizer Chiefs, be saying in his grave of more than five decades, as, in the land of the dead, he watches the disintegration, brick by brick, of the team he loved and helped form?
A flamboyant businessman of the 1960s and 1970s, also known as “The Lip”, a moniker he earned because, like the great Muhammad Ali, he spoke his mind unrestrained, and carried in his heart a great love for the well-being of the nascent Kaizer X1 formed in 1970, which would in later times morph into Kaizer Chiefs.
We might never know, but we can surmise that he sleeps, in the darkness of his grave, with a heavy heart of sadness, filled with doubts whether his efforts to help Amakhosi get off the ground was worth the trouble.
He was a talent scout par excellence who discovered and brought to Chiefs Nelson “Teenage” Dladla, as a sprightly 21-year-old lad doing duty for a local team, but was, in an unfortunate incident, stabbed to death in Kwa-Thema, Springs, for “stealing one of their own”.
The club’s performance deteriorates year after year. As it does so, so does the brand, getting smudged in the process.
The brand is all that matters in business and football, an attribute that separates the men from the boys.
The team’s poor performance in the field of play for consecutive seasons does not enhance it.
Suffice to say, the support base is increasingly becoming disgruntled and restive – expressions often displayed violently, with the team’s managers often at the receiving end of the fans’ anger.
That, we should say, does not augur well for the reputation of the team, and by extension, its brand.
The club’s stature is dissipating. The aura of invincibility it commanded with much aplomb is gone.
Long in the teeth, born in 1970, the team baptised as the Glamour Boys, has become less glamorous, vilified even by its own supporters, who may ask many unanswered questions about what the future may hold for the team that used to be a household name in football circles.
The analogy of Coca Cola as a great brand is appropriate to illustrate the point.
Those who manage its brand care more about it as if their lives depended on it – to sustain its shine and quality as perceived by those who consume its products.
And they do so for a good reason – to protect the brand’s market share in the market space.
Good companies avoid having their brand smudged. Good reputation matters.
For that, big brands employ experts in marketing and branding to ensure the brand always commands respect.
What will Chiefs do about this parlous situation?
The question can best be answered by the club’s original owner – Kaizer Motaung – and others within the hierarchy who run its affairs.
In the final analysis, the team’s management must brace itself for difficult questions, including from supporters and sponsors.
We refer to Coca Cola. The company, in almost a literal sense, guards its brand, avoiding any form or act that could smudge it. The beverage company states: “We are a world class leader in the products we serve as a result of strong product quality… and taking a progressive view on innovation and science techniques.”
Amakhosi would do well to take a leaf from this philosophy.
As for Nene, dead for almost 50 years, the question remains: “Did I die in vain?”
