Mpengesi hails Nwabali's display against Bafana

As if declaring his support for Nigeria against Bafana Bafana didn’t invite him enough wrath from South Africans, Chippa United boss Siviwe Mpengesi has once again rubbed SA the wrong way.

Mpengesi has emphasised that “they will not be shaken” by the public backlash after he said he supported Nigeria and not Bafana Bafana before the two sides clashed in the Afcon semifinal on Wednesday. On Thursday, Chippa released another statement where Mpengesi congratulated his goalkeeper Stanley Nwabali for his display that ensured Nigeria beat Bafana 4-2 on penalties.

Nwabali was named man of the match after saving the penalties of Teboho Mokoena and Evidence Makgopa. The game had ended 1-all after extra-time.

"“The club wishes to extend its congratulations to Stanley Nwabali for his extraordinary achievement in reaching the Afcon final and for also earning the man of the match award. Our support for you remains steadfast. You have represented the Chippa United brand admirably and we are immensely proud of you. We will be rooting for you in the final against Ivory Coast on Sunday,” said Mpengesi in a statement.

Saying he was supporting Nigeria instead of Bafana left many questioning Mpengesi’s patriotism, especially given the fact that his team is mainly funded by taxpayers’ money through the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality. The controversial Chippa made it clear he wasn’t fazed by the backlash he was subjected to for standing with Nigeria even when the Bafana skipper Ronwen Williams hails from the Eastern Cape as well.

“We assure our stakeholders that we remain committed to our goal of being the pride of the Eastern Cape and we will not be shaken because we are Chippa United,” read another extract of Mpengesi’s weird statement on Wednesday.

X (formerly Twitter) users reacted angrily to the statement. “Mxm, this Afcon is gonna end soon, we will deal with [him],” said one user.

“Useless chairman,” said another X user.

Meanwhile, on Wednesday the Chilli Boys ended up deleting the statement where Mpengesi had said he supported Nigeria from their social media pages.